I believe in yesterday
by Madame Lady
Summary: After the war is over, what's left for the Storm Hawks? *Set in the future. Pairings inside. **Third chapter written by Ambrel. Complete!
1. Unsatisfied

Yay, I'm back with another Storm Hawks chapterfic! I'll warn you, though, it's pretty depressing. Written mostly out of my own personal angsting. I'll also warn you that there is a AerrowxPiperxStork triangle in here. I know I said I'd probably never write for a pairing, but...I guess I did. Whoops.

Also, Finn is paired with an OC. I know how it sounds, but trust me. Ambrel covered it. She could never write a terrifying Mary Sue. Not without really trying.

I'd love to thank my lovely, lovely betas, Ambrel and .PhaerynTao., for reading through this 'fic for me. They're incredibly awesome. Two of the absolute coolest people I've ever met here on FFnet. If you haven't read their work yet, please do.

--

_It wasn't supposed to be like this._

This thought constantly ran through my mind these days.

Opposing Cyclonia and defeating Master Cyclonis and the Dark Ace had been my goal, my dream, my life. It was my master plan, with nothing else to fall back on. It was either succeed, or die trying. It was my purpose, and I had given it my all.

Four months ago, we fought the final epic battle. It had lasted two whole days, in which we and our friends invaded the Cyclonian empire, the palace, the throne room, and finally took back the freedom of the atmos. Master Cyclonis, in her last attempt to stop us, ended up accidentally encasing herself in the giant obliteration crystal she had been using against us through an intricate device. She now stands in the rebuilt Cyclonia, renamed Terra Freedom, as a reminder through the ages of what once was.

Ravess was imprisoned, along with Repton and Leugy and tons of talons. Everyone else was gone.

But as for the Dark Ace, I had the privilege of bringing him down myself. We were evenly matched, but with six more years of age and experience than I had started with as a skyknight, I won out eventually. Those were the toughest hours of my life. I could still hear the ringing, crashing sounds of blows being exchanged. I still bore the scars he had given me. Though the blood was all washed away now, I still felt it there, burning into me. It would never go away completely. That final battle had marked me forever.

All of the Atmos had taken part in either aiding or defeating Cyclonia, and I'm sad to say we lost many friends in the struggle. Wren, Suzi Lu, Bobby Bones, Burner, half of the Rex Guardians...they were only a few of the many casualties. It was staggering, the price that our victory had demanded, but I was sure that every soul that had taken part truly believed in what they were doing, right to the end.

These last months had been exhausting, not only physically because we had helped to repair and rebuild, but emotionally because we had also been there to help the friends we had known for years through losing their teammates. I can't even begin to describe the sorrow that laid heavily on everyone at the battlegrounds, the sorrow that seemed to smother any feelings of victory.

It was over. I was supposed to be happy once we had won.

War is a horrible thing. Yes, it was necessary, and I'm glad that Cyclonia has fallen. But I never want to go through it again. I never want to take another life, to see someone die by my hand. If I have to, to protect my friends and what I believe is right, I will. But I hope it never comes to that again.

But, now with peace in the Atmos, I no longer had a purpose. What was I supposed to do now, when there was no longer a huge need for squadrons to protect the skies, especially ones not tied to a Terra? No way was I going into retirement, I felt useless enough already. I never made any plans for after the war, I always just focused on what needed to be done to end it. Besides, I didn't know if I would even survive to follow through on any plans I could've made.

Well, there had been one thing that I had put aside until now...

And it was painful to find out that she had the same plan for someone else.

I've always loved Piper, but with everything we had to do, I didn't want anything getting in the way of our mission, so I had waited. Waited to reveal my feelings to her, so we could both focus on our important tasks. Now I didn't think I ever would, and it killed me inside.

As surprising as it had been at first, she was now with Stork. I mean, where did _that_ come from? He seemed like the kinda guy who'd rather keep to himself. I always figured he would avoid that kind of relationship. Okay, maybe he'd eventually find a girl back home or something. But Piper? The two of them never seemed to...I hadn't noticed...

Maybe I was just blinded by my own feelings for her, oblivious to the possibility that someone else could feel the same way about her. I was still confused by all of it. But if it was Stork she wanted, and if he was the one who would make her happy, I wouldn't say anything. I'd have to quietly stew in my own emotions. As much as I wanted Piper...I wouldn't get in the way of her happiness.

But I couldn't sit back silently when I found out that Finn wanted to leave. My wingman, my bud, my right-hand man. He wanted to _leave_ us. Years ago, no one would've expected this from him, but he had changed. We all changed.

I really should've seen it coming. In the many times we had visited Terra Vapos over the years, he had started seeing this girl. Ada. She was a sweet girl, but that was the problem. I let Finn know, more than once, that if he continued dating her every time we visited the Terra, they might start getting serious, and that's just not a good thing for a guy who's always going to be away with his squadron.

Finn, being Finn, ignored my warnings. He told me that he was sure that they'd be fine, and not to worry so much. Apparently, I should've listened to my intuition.

Just one week ago, he announced his plans to go back to Vapos, to live there and start a family with Ada. I hadn't taken it well. None of us had, but I had reacted the loudest. How could he just come out and say that? Did he really think we'd just be okay with him ditching us? We'd all been together for _six years_, was he just tired of us?

He argued, saying that he was just looking to the future. We couldn't just do this all our lives, we had to stop sometime. And he had dreams of marrying Ada and having kids. Settling down. War had taken its toll on all of us, and he was done fighting. And it's not like we'd never see him again, we could easily visit any time.

I couldn't blame him, really...but I was just hurt. And shocked. It really drove home the fact that everything was different now, and things were changing. We couldn't all live like this together forever. Our job was done now, it was time to move on, and I didn't want to accept that. Being with the Storm Hawks had been amazing, every day was a new adventure, and we had become a family.

Our family had been through a lot. Too much, it seemed, sometimes. Now it was breaking apart, and I couldn't handle it. The last time it had felt like this was when Radarr died...but I...it's always painful to lose part of the family.

I shouldn't have yelled at Finn. It had caused a rift between us, and it only worsened the stiff, quiet sadness that had soon permeated the Condor. Piper had been upset. She tried to convince him pleadingly to give it more thought, but she fell silent when she realized how serious Finn was. Stork withheld the sarcastic comments he was known for and looked just about as mad as me, before he, too, saw the logic in his words.

And Junko...he couldn't say a thing, at first. After Finn's decision had sunk in, he just broke down. Finn had stood firm on his decision, but he at least looked guilty when Junko begged him not to go. The big guy was older now, a full-grown wallop, but when it came down to those basic feelings, Junko hadn't changed a whole lot.

None of us had really spoken to each other much since then.

OoO

I stood in the entrance to the hangar, looking out at the woman who sat outside on the runway, sketching something in her book.

Why did she have such power over me, over my mind? I've always had a strong sense of freedom, and never have I let anyone or anything control me. But...Piper didn't even have to try. I couldn't help but be drawn to her, to appreciate her every little detail. The breeze tugging lightly at her long blue hair, pulling the strands softly across her dark skin...the subtle movement of her concentrated expression, focusing on her work...the way she absent-mindedly pulls at folds of her clothes as she thinks of what to add...

Before, I never had the time or the attention to spare for noticing those little things. Now, it was all I could think about. It was driving me insane, along with everything else that had happened in the last few months.

Running a hand through my hair, I sighed in frustration and turned and walked back through the hangar, wishing I could just forget about everything for a moment and lose myself in something, like Piper was doing right now with her drawings. Just as I reached for the handle to the door that led to the hallway, the door opened, revealing our primary mechanic filling the doorway.

"Uh, hey, Junko."

"Oh, hey." The wallop smiled the same forced smile he'd been using the last few days. I don't know why he tried to hide it. We all felt the same way. "What's up?"

"Not much." Though, really, that was the problem. "How 'bout you?"

I stepped aside, and he walked in, gesturing to the skimmers lined up by the wall. "I was just gonna check up on our rides...again."

Junko has never been very good at hiding his feelings. The tone in his voice betrayed him. "How many times have you taken apart our skimmers this week?"

"Oh, I dunno." He sighed, looking at the vehicles. "At least twice a day."

I knew it wasn't because they needed fixing.

"It's just...I need something to do."

Nodding, I placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know."

He sat down on his workbench, staring long and hard at the skimmers. "I don't even want to anymore. There's no point. I mean, they're just _machines_. They help us go places, that's all. And now, I don't want anyone to _go_ anywhere." He rested his head in his hands. "Once Finn leaves, it's only a matter of time before we all go."

"Look, Junko, I'm not going anywhere. And can you even imagine Stork leaving the Condor? Piper...she wouldn't--"

"We all saw the crystals and stuff she got from Cyclonis' labs. When she's finished learning all she can...the right thing to do would be to share that knowledge. To do what she can to make the atmos even better. To become a teacher. The entire time we've known her, she's always talked about what she would do with her life after the war."

I fell silent. And fell hard. Why hadn't I thought about this? I guess I just figured that she'd always stay here, if not for all of us, then for Stork. And she hadn't said anything about leaving, not to me anyway. "But...we can all go with her. She'll teach all over the place, right? We'll just go in the Condor. And if she does have to stay somewhere, we'll just stay grounded. As much as Stork won't hear it, this old ship shouldn't be flying anymore anyway. We can just..."

Junko looked up at me. "Do you really think that'll work? Even if we do that, she and Stork will still be together. Stuck in here with them and nothing to do, you'll go crazy. I know you will. You'll be the one leaving. And I couldn't live here with just them, it would be weird. I can't keep fixing skimmers that aren't broken. I need to feel useful, too."

This sucked. There wasn't a single thing I could do.

"Aerrow, I want as much as you do for all of us to stay together, but I've been thinking about this a lot. We just can't. It would actually be selfish. We all have different talents that can be used in lots of different places. And it's selfish to give Finn a hard time about his decision. He's found his place, we should do the same."

If that was the case, then I _wanted_ to be selfish. I wanted life to go on the way it had been for so long. I had been happy. I had a purpose. I had a great family close to me. I wished I could just go on living that life forever.

I wanted the impossible.

Clenching my fists, I just stood there, trying to say something. Anything. When nothing sprang forth, it only added to my growing frustration.

Junko nodded his understanding and sadly looked away, standing up next to his skimmer and proceeding to take it apart.

Leaving him to that, I exited the hangar. With every step I took I grew more and more tense, and the hallways became a blur. As soon as I was hidden behind the walls of my room, and the door shut behind me, I let it all out. I yelled. I threw things, knocked stuff over. I knew it was childish, that I was accomplishing little more than throwing a fit, but in the moment, I had to. I felt so helpless.

Never have I lost my control like that before. I've always held it together. When there was a problem, I dealt with it. I did whatever I could to fix it. I was the leader. That's what leaders did. But there was nothing I could do to make this situation better. Nothing.

I hated it. I hated this feeling of helplessness. I hated that this was the way it had to be, and that I'd have to move on. It was all out of my control, and I had no say in the matter.

When I finally cooled off, I dropped to my knees in the middle of the floor, clutching my head and shaking from the quick release of pent-up anger. It wasn't supposed to be like this. We had won the war. We were heroes. Everything was falling apart, right through my fingers. It felt like I was losing all we had fought so hard for...every bond and memory we had forged. After everything we had been through together, it was like they were ready to throw it all away. I didn't want them to go.

Back when I was younger, I had never thought that it would be like this. I never imagined the outcome of achieving my goal. I always figured that things would just fall into place. The emptiness that was left behind after surmounting the all of those trials the Cyclonian empire had set before us came completely unexpected to me. And it was painful in a way that I never anticipated.

I never knew it would turn out this way.

I never knew that I'd end up being so _completely unsatisfied._

--

There you have it. The coming chapters will be through the others' POVs, followed by an omniscient perspective for the end. Six in all. (Piper's next.)


	2. I just don't know

Here we are, chapter two. Glad you guys are liking it.

--

I didn't even know what to do anymore. I didn't know what to think or what to say.

On the outside, I had been doing what I could to stay collected. To have it all together. I remained open for any of the guys when they needed to talk, though Junko was the only one who had really approached me so far. But, inside...I was crumbling.

I did my best to be supportive of Finn, something I'm sure meant a lot to him. Growing up together, we had both discovered a lot of things. After I learned to be patient and to humor him, and he had learned a little humility, we found that we could actually be pretty good friends. We had all gone through some rough times, and common ground wasn't the only thing we had gained.

I knew I'd really miss him when he'd go. I knew it wouldn't be forever, we'd still visit and everything, but...it wouldn't nearly be the same. Who would try to bug me to the edge of insanity? Who would make stupid jokes for me to roll my eyes at? Who would do dumb stuff to make me feel better when I'm frustrated? Only Finn could ever fill that position. But, he was going to leave, and the least I could do was support his decision and be there for him until then.

Aerrow hadn't talked to me much at all lately. I could understand that he was still upset over Finn's announcement, but he hadn't _really_ talked to me for months. It hurt. Like I had already lost him. I could tell he had a lot going on inside, but he had been trying too hard to hide it. I think Finn talking about leaving might've just finally pushed him to his limit. What had brought him close enough to that point in the first place, though?

If I used logic to try and figure it out, with the fact that he had started acting this way about the time Stork and I had come out and revealed our new relationship, the conclusion would be that...Aerrow had feelings for me, and he now felt awkward around either of us. But that's something I didn't want to hear from that voice in the back of my head.

When I had first met the Sky Knight, I had a definite crush on him. And why not? He's the perfect guy, right? Well, it turned out that he was too perfect. I quickly realized that a guy like him didn't need me. Even if he were to return my feelings, it wouldn't feel...it wouldn't feel right, I guess. I have a thing about being needed, especially when it comes to a romantic relationship. If I'm just the extra bonus in someone's life, it's just not the same as being more than that.

No, Aerrow wouldn't treat me like a trophy girlfriend or a trophy wife, but he had enough going for him that he could pretty much get any girl, if he wanted. What _I_ wanted was to be really, truly appreciated.

Stork always made me feel needed. He'd come a long way from being the cowardly, detached merb we had first met, covering up his insecurities with constant pessimism. He still had trouble opening up and talking about some things, but he managed now. I could tell he was really working at it, particularly with me.

He always treated me equally, too. When the boys were up to something they didn't want me to know about, they would tell me that it was "guy stuff", laugh over their inside jokes, and proceed in leaving me out of their little club. They didn't respect half of my plans, they rarely showed appreciation for my crystal work...they didn't mean to make me feel bad, I'm sure-well, maybe Finn did in the earlier years-but I tried not to make a big deal out of it most of the time.

I didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff with Stork. Despite our differing personalities, we had a lot in common when it came to what we did. He understood my passion for crystals, equating it with his own passion for piloting and mechanics. We both loved to create things, to use our own hands to make improvements in simple, or sometimes no-so-simple, objects. We shared a love for reading and learning, stocking up on whatever knowledge we could get our eyes on. And we both knew what it was like to feel a bit left out by everyone. We didn't like everything to be mile-a-minute, to constantly feed off action and adrenaline. Sure, it was fun, but winding down and working on projects was a default for us.

About two years ago, he had even mustered the courage to ask me to teach him more about crystals. That kind of knowledge could always be put to use at some point or another, he had said. Ya never know when having extra competency in any field could come in handy.

Who was I to refuse? Besides, I had practically been waiting forever for someone to talk to about my area of expertise. I loved to talk about the things that interested me. Not only did it boost my own confidence in what I was doing, but having another mind to bounce theories off of really helped a lot.

Stork was really awkward and edgy at first, being alone with me in my room, but after a few days it gradually wore off. He grew a lot more comfortable and open with me, and soon we were able to joke around and argue over little things like whether or not combining two natural opposite crystals should be attempted without the proper equipment, or why the Mysterious Loaf of Bread the guys had kept in the back of the cupboard for months was really that mysterious, or even what color would best suit the newest gadget he had created.

But, after we would leave my room, he would always return to being his usual self. Like he was afraid to show that side of himself to the guys. I never questioned him, knowing he wouldn't want to answer. Finn had given him a hard enough time with "what we were really doing" in my room, and treating me out in the open the way he did behind closed doors really wouldn't have helped the situation. So, for a long time, we had a separate kind of friendship when we were alone than we did with the others. It felt almost like we were lying to everyone, like we were living secret lives, but after repeating the routine enough, it just felt normal.

It didn't take long for us to start really looking forward to the crystal lessons. We loved the exchange of knowledge, and we enjoyed each other's company.

Then, Stork wanted to repay me. I didn't want payment for it, of course, but he offered it in the form of mechanics training. I was quick to decide that learning to work with machines could be very beneficial, and he had actually looked almost giddy that I had accepted.

He wasn't a born teacher, I can tell you that much, but he tried. Patience hadn't been on the list of things he was determined to teach me, but it worked its way into me during his lessons anyway.

Another thing I had learned from him was why he was so fond of the Condor. Not just because she was a mechanical wonder, personalized by himself, but also because she couldn't judge. She couldn't talk back. She couldn't betray him. He didn't have to worry about any of that from a machine. He could put time and effort into her without fear of rejection. The Condor was his safe place.

He would act sure of himself, even aloof at times, but underneath that odd exterior, Stork really didn't have a high opinion of himself when it came to being around other people. He just accepted that people automatically wouldn't understand or like him, so he built up walls around himself. If you don't let anyone in, they can't hurt you.

It made me feel special that he trusted me enough to let me come inside those walls, even if it was just tentatively for short periods of time.

And I let him in on things I wouldn't normally tell anyone else, too. Stork was so easy to talk to about those things. When I was serious about something, he didn't joke about it. He listened carefully, and always knew what kind of logical advice to give on a situation I was too emotional over to think clearly about.

That's why, when the war was over...he had been the first and only one I had told about my plan to leave and teach professionally.

OoO

_"...What?" Stork asked. I could tell that I had taken him by surprise._

_"Yeah," I said uncomfortably, my words pouring out fast to explain myself. "I mean, I always talked about it in the beginning, but I really think it's something I should do. I figure I can set my base on Terra Atmosia, and travel to other places as I need to. I'm the biggest crystals expert in the Atmos now, and I could do a lot of good in teaching people what I know." Looking into his wide eyes expectantly, I anxiously twisted a piece of scrap paper in my hands._

_He didn't say anything for a long time. I squirmed. Then I spoke again, if only to fill up the quiet in the room. "What do you think? I...don't want to leave you guys, but I...I should make good use of my knowledge."_

_Silence._

_He stood there quietly for a long while, and his stare slowly drifted to the floor. His right ear twitched, something I hadn't seen him do often. He clutched his hands together nervously, before voicing his reply._

_"You're right. It's the right thing to do."_

_"So...you think I should?"_

_"If that's what you want."_

_The small, encouraging smile he was trying to coax upon his features told me that though he had given me the logical answer, what he wanted to tell me was being hidden. Hidden behind more walls._

_"But...what if I don't know what I want?"_

_"Piper, I can't tell you what to want. That's something you'll have to decide for yourself." _

_He was right, but that still didn't make it any easier. I'm usually okay to making lots of decisions, but this time I wasn't sure what I wanted the outcome to be like. And this..._

_This was a huge one._

_Whichever path I choose to take, whether to continue down the one I had trekked for years, or to start down a new, unfamiliar one, would lead me in a totally different direction than the other._

_Suddenly, Stork dipped his head downward, staring at the floor. "But, um...I just want you to know that if you do leave, I...I'd like to go with you. If it's not a...problem."_

What?_ Now it was my turn to be surprised. "Even if it meant leaving the Condor?"_

_Steeling himself, he took a deep, trembling breath. This was big. In a quick, jerky motion, he nodded. "To...to be honest, I, ah, don't really know what I'd do with myself, y'know, with you gone." He was having a hard time coming out with what he was trying to say. He looked really uncomfortable, with a level of nervousness he hadn't displayed in a long time. "You're, uh, that is... Look. I, um, really care about you. I've never been able to talk to anyone else like I can with you. I...no, never mind, I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm trying to say."_

_As my mind tried to wade through the jumbled mess of what he just said, his face twisted into an expression of frustration and he continued, hands gripping the back of his head by his ears._

_"No, no, I do know. I know. I just...need you, Piper. I need to be with you."_

_Those words..._

_When he finally looked at me, when he saw the astonishment on my face, he seemed to hurriedly back down from his confession. "But, if you don't want me, I understand. I couldn't expect you to--"_

_Before he could say any more, I stepped forward, grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him. I couldn't think of a better or quicker way to convince him that I felt the same way._

_Stork stiffened completely, obviously shocked. It felt almost like kissing a wall. A warm, thin, green-skinned wall with hair that brushed against my face. And when I pulled away, he almost looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Eyes wide and staring. I was afraid he might go into sky shock again._

_As strange as our first kiss had been, I couldn't help but laugh for some reason. It was terrible and wonderful at the same time, I decided. An awkward, marvelous, stupid, hilarious kiss._

_The sound of my laughter broke him free from his stunned state and he appeared confused, then looked at me like I was crazy. And in that moment, I felt like it. But I got a hold of myself before the thought of me infecting him with some insanity-inducing illness could cross his mind, and I hugged him._

_"I need you, too, Stork."_

OoO

Mmph.

Rubbing my eyes tiredly, I reread the same sentence over for the seventh time.

_Come on, concentrate!_

I leaned over my book, breathing in deeply to get some oxygen pumping into my brain. I had only been reading for about five minutes, but I hadn't managed to get past the first few paragraphs. Thanks to all the problems running around in my head, I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep lately, either.

After the eighth time my eyes went over the sentence and I still hadn't gotten it into my head, I sat back in my chair defeatedly. Sighing, I leaned over and rested my head sideways on a certain green shoulder.

Sitting beside me with his own book, Stork automatically stiffened a little at my touch, but forced himself to relax. After a lifetime of being cautious of any kind of contact, I really didn't blame him. It was hard to train that kind of thing out of yourself, but I was helping him with it, little by little.

"...Well?" he asked, after a moment.

"Huh?"

"You wanna tell me what's goin' on, or am I, ah, supposed to guess?"

There were times when he could surprise me with how well he knew what I was feeling. There were times when he had no clue. And there were times like now, when I made it easy. All he wanted to know now was why.

"I don't know...has Aerrow talked to you at all recently?" I asked, not looking up.

Stork closed his book without marking it, making me almost jealous that he could always remember exactly which page he was on. I didn't know if he knew it, but I loved it when he'd do little things like totally put what he was doing on hold just to talk to me. It felt good.

"Uh...not really. Why?"

"He hasn't talked to me, either." I replied, not bothering to hide the sadness in my voice. "He's been so...distant."

"It's understandable. A lot has happened in the last few months."

"I know. It just seems like when things finally start to slow down, some other big thing happens to really shake things up."

When the time almost felt right to tell everyone about leaving, Finn went and beat me to it. I didn't want him to go, because without him Aerrow and Junko wouldn't know what to do when Stork and I announced our plans. I felt bad enough about leaving, but to leave them while they were still upset over Finn? I couldn't do it.

"At this rate, we'll never go anywhere." I picked up Stork's hand, which he had to try to relax, and began rubbing my fingers over his dark nails. "I keep wondering if we should...I mean, could we actually live somewhere else? Without the _Condor_, without everyone...without being a Storm Hawk? Could we even _do_ it?"

I didn't mean physically, and he knew that. Of course we _could_ leave, but would we really put ourselves up to the task?

After thinking this over for a minute, Stork made his reply. "I don't know. Logically, it's the right thing to do, but everything depends on how much you believe in that mission."

With the Atmos no longer in need, general focus would turn from action and strategy to research and progress. I could help out a great deal in moving the crystal industry and development forward. As much as most people love the Storm Hawks and see us as heroes, there wasn't a lot for us to do as a squadron anymore. We could all stick together forever, but in order for us to each do the best we could with our individual talents, we had to move on.

Even Finn had figured that out for himself.

"Considering the possible reactions of the others, though, we may not want to even suggest the idea for a while." Stork added.

Oh, the dreaded reactions. "Yeah. I'm scared that Aerrow may finally lose it, as upset as he was...well, still is...with Finn." I brushed away the hair that was slowly covering my face. "He's really different now. The way he was getting in those last few weeks before the Final Battle..."

Before the last fight with Cyclonia, Aerrow had gotten obsessed with the plans and preparations. Like, scary obsessed. Yes, planning and preparing was a big deal, and though we were all trying to get things ready, he had gone nonstop, without rest. He pushed us to work harder, and we did. We had known the importance of what was coming, so we didn't argue. But, I think that might've been what started the growing distance between the Sky Knight and his squadron. We tried talking to him, but it was difficult for anyone to get through to him.

None of us knew just how frighteningly set he was on destroying Cyclonia. I was committed to the mission, and so was everyone else, but seeing Aerrow on verge of insanity was troubling, to say the least.

"I miss him. How he used to be." I missed how everything used to be. "I wish we could go back to the way it was." Turning my head so that my forehead rested on his shoulder, I released a sigh of frustrated confusion. "I don't know what to do, I don't know who I'm supposed to be. _I just don't know_."

Right now, I had no idea where the calm, confident Piper was. That side of me seemed content to sit back and let this side take over, preparing itself for being forced outwards later. I had to be strong for the guys, but I trusted Stork could handle this for a little while. I hoped so, anyway.

In an unsure act of comfort, he took my hand lightly. "Well, ah, whatever it is you do decide to do...I'll back you up." His voice was beginning to get that hesitant tone to it, the way it always does when he starts talking about things he's uncomfortable with saying. "It may or may not make any difference, but, um...yeah."

Unable to keep a small smile from stretching itself across my face, I hugged him. I don't know why he's always so surprised when I do those kinds of things, but he instinctively stiffened again, before loosening up again and slowly, carefully wrapping his arm around me.

In the moment of silence that followed, I sat there, enjoying the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest beneath my head.

This small happiness soon turned to worry, however, with each off-beat or irregularity of air intake or heartbeat. He definitely had something on his mind but either wouldn't say, or couldn't think of how to say it. I tried to wait it out, in hopes that he would come out with it himself, but curiosity and my old streak of impatience grabbed hold of me.

"You okay, Stork?" I questioned, looking up to see if his expression would hold any sort of clue.

He blinked, apparently taken off-guard by my interruption to his thoughts. "What? I...I'm fine. Why?" His eyes grew wide. "I don't have purple splotches on my face, do I?" He stood up quickly, dragging me with him, causing his chair to fall to the floor with a clatter. "'Cause just this morning I thought it felt itchy and flaky, too, and those are the first signs of--"

"No, you don't." I reassured him. "I was just wondering, that's all."

Pause. "...Oh." Settling down from his near panic attack, he set the chair back upright.

"So," I pressed, "_are_ you alright?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." He sat down, avoiding eye contact. "Find anything interesting in that book there?"

I wished he wouldn't lie to me like that. Or I at least wished I knew why he was lying to me. Biting back the urge to call him out on it, I just shook my head. "Not yet."

We returned to our reading, but now I was as distracted as ever. Stork wouldn't keep something from me without a good reason, but that only fueled the fire of my burning curiosity. What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it from me? What if it turned out to be really important?

I forced my mind to halt the steady stream of questions and possible answers. If it was life-threatening, he'd tell me. I had to trust that he knew what he was doing. The world wouldn't end and life would go on if I didn't know. That's what I had to remind myself every time I got impatient with someone or something. It's alright, ride it out.

Just as I finally cleared my thoughts away, the original concentration-sabotaging issues returned to mercilessly crashing around inside my skull. Eventually, I just accepted that trying to get through these pages wasn't going to happen right now. Closing the book, I rested my arms and head over the top of it. Stork gave me a questioning look, and I answered in a mumble, "Jus' tired."

Sleep. Being able to get to sleep easily would be nice, instead of tossing and turning until my body finally shut down out of exhaustion. This wasn't the first time my thoughts had kept me from getting some rest, but this just wouldn't go away. No matter how many times I tried to empty my mind, or even replace the problems with other subjects of thought, it kept coming back. I couldn't get away from it.

It had to stop eventually, right? I mean, things could only be so tense for so long before something had to give. Something would shift, the pressure would blow out, and we'd be okay again. At least, I hoped so.

I tried to convince myself that life would gain a semblance of normalcy soon, if only to lay my own thoughts to rest. I tried to keep that idea in my head, so that maybe I could pretend that things weren't as uncomfortable as they really were.

But as much as I wanted some peace of mind, I knew it would be a long time in coming.


	3. Taken opportunity

Alright, before this chapter gets underway, can we all have a round of applause for Ambrel? -gives you a moment to clap wildly- 'Cause I had NO idea how I was gonna do this chapter. Finn didn't want me to write it, I guess. He likes Ambrel better. xD So, I asked her to write this, and yay, she did!

If you haven't read her 'fics yet, go now. She's amazing.

--

I've learned a lot in the past few years. Most of my time with the Storm Hawks was spent learning something new at every turn. A new move, a new technique, new facts about friends… and enemies. Seeing new people, going places that most people only hear about in stories. Going places that no one even knows exist.

I like to think that I have gained something from my years with the others. And one of those lessons is this:

If you see an opportunity, you take it. You grab it with both hands and hold on for dear life, because if a single moment passes and you aren't ready, that opportunity will disappear like so much smoke.

Like whenever I'm sighting down the scope. I can't sit there and waver over whether or not to take the shot. There's not enough time for that. If I ever hesitated, then I would have missed my shot, or worse, someone could have gotten hurt.

And over the years, I've started to apply the same philosophy to life in general. Take this, for example: There's this really hot girl who likes you, and wants to go out with you. But you have something else to do, like… I dunno, fix your skimmer. If you take too long to decide, the girl might walk out and leave, but hey, the skimmer's still sitting broke in the hangar bay. You decide to fix the ride, and the girl still leaves because you made her wait too long… but suppose you take the third option? You take her out, have a good time, and when you're done, you get a good night kiss. And when you get back, the skimmer is waiting there for you, just like you never left.

Win-win, right?

So, in essence… if you're going to blow her off, it had better be important, right? Whatever it is has to be more important than that girl. You have to be sure you can live with throwing it all into the wind.

See, that's the problem I had up until a week ago.

I can remember the exact day that I met Ada. It was on one of our trips to Vapos, shortly after I saved their collective butts. I liked stopping by every now and then to see how things were going on that old rock, and from the looks of it, prosperity had reared its head once more. Fields were in full force, filled to bursting with crops and grasses. The granaries were topped off and the livestock fat. The streets and buildings were slowly being repaired. The castle was not longer a forgotten ruin and for once, the people were wearing a startling variety of clothing that I had never seen there before. No more drab, white cloth and boring grey homes for the citizens of Vapos. They were free of their curse and they were joining the rest of civilization in leaps and bounds.

I remember sitting next to King Agar as he told me some story or another from his youth. I sincerely doubt the old man actually intended on finding an ending to that story at all, since he just kept rambling on and on into different tangents.

I had been looking around in desperation, sure that my brain was going to crawl out of my ear and run screaming back to the _Condor_ in a last ditch attempt to save my sanity from the boredom brought on by Agar's mumbling, when I saw her.

Remember the aforementioned hot girl in my example?

Well, this was her.

Actually, no. Hot is too mundane a word to describe it. Beautiful.

She was beautiful. And I watched her descend the newly made steps in the feasting hall to rest a gentle, pale hand on Agar's shoulder. She bent down, and with soft, rosebud colored lips, whispered into the old man's ear.

How I wished I was that ear.

She smiled at him, and motioned to an attendant to help him hobble off to his rooms before she turned what had to be the eyes of an angel on me.

"Great Domo," she said, her voice ringing out with a clarity and presence that nearly took my breath from me, "I apologize for Grandpapa. He's getting on in his age, and sometimes he loses himself in his past."

"I-uh, I mean…"

She smiled, and I saw the very sun rise within her face. "My name is Ada, Great Domo."

"Uh…Princess?" I croaked, somehow finding my voice.

"I suppose you could call me that."

"You're beautiful." Did I say that? I must have, because it was so profoundly true. She blushed and looked away. "Um… I mean.. would-uh?"

She seemed to have a better grasp of the language than I did, and for that I was grateful. "Since I have deprived you of Grandpapa's company, would you permit me to take his place this night?"

It was all I could do to nod.

We spent that night with each other, talking (once I got over my tongue tied surprise) and laughing about everything under the sun. The next day, and the day after that, we were virtually inseparable. I even managed to get her to treat me more like a real person, rather than the legendary Domo.

The rest of the Storm Hawks and I ended up staying for longer than we planned, near on two weeks. It gave me plenty of time to strike up a great friendship with Ada, though I still thought she was really pretty. I kinda kept it to myself.

Don't laugh. Its hard to tell someone you like them when you really do. And I had only known her for two weeks.

When it came time for the _Condor_ to take flight again, she had pulled me of to a private corner before we all left the palace. She looked troubled and suddenly grabbed my hands and asked me to remember her always.

I frowned in puzzlement at the question. "Of course I'll remember you, Ada. You're really cool."

She sighed and shook her head. I must have been missing something at the time, judging from the annoyed look she shot me. But hey, I was a fifteen year old kid. Who could blame me for being a little bit dense?

"You are just not much of a romantic at all, are you Finn?" she asked pointedly, then huffed a sigh. "You're supposed to say something equally fluffy."

"Uh…why?"

"So I have an excuse to kiss you, you idiot!"

That stopped my mind right in its tracks. "Zuh?"

"Idiot." she said again.

Then she kissed me.

From then on, each time the _Condor_ was in range, I came to Vapos to spend time with her, even when the rest of the crew stayed on the ship. And each time I had to leave, it was harder and harder.

We had been doing this for years. And she supported me through it all. All the fighting. All the pain. She was my constant. She was there for me. And she never wavered.

To this day, I think she is the reason I survived.

And so one day, when I had made my way back to Vapos for a visit, I took her to a secluded meadow. I hit my knees and held out a ring, and asked the question that had been on my mind for months.

"Will you marry me?"

She didn't say anything for a while, and her eyes filled with tears. She put her hands to her mouth and gasped.

I didn't think I would be that nervous. I mean, it wasn't like this step in our relationship had been any surprise in coming. But all of a sudden, my breath was catching and my stomach did flip flops until she found her voice.

"Yes. Oh, yes, Finn!"

It was the happiest moment of my life. I couldn't wait to tell everyone.

OOO

It could have gone better.

Aerrow was the most upset, but I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting was the total meltdown that he apparently went through.

I'm not exactly the most understanding of people, so I probably just made it worse by arguing with him, but really, what did he expect me to do? There was no need to have me around anymore. No more bad guys to shoot! I was out of a job here, right?

The hardest one to face was Junko. Yelling and fighting, I could deal with. But tears?

I knew that would happen. I tried to be prepared. But Junko's tears were almost my undoing. But I still held firm, with the sound of Ada's voice strong in my head.

But he was mad anyway. By the end of the 'conversation', I was pretty steamed too, so we both ended up disappearing into our rooms.

I cooled down quick though. But every time I tried to find Aerrow, he either walked right by me or was locked up tight in his room.

It wasn't until today that I finally caught up with him.

I heard the sounds of crashing echoing through the halls. It was coming from Aerrow's room. I ran. I doubted there was anyone attacking, since we really had no enemies, but you never know.

By the time I had arrived at his door, everything had gone silent. I paused, a little uncertain, when I heard a noise.

It sounded like heavy breathing. I walked to the door and opened it silently. It was Aerrow. He was kneeling in the middle of the wreckage of his room. Deep, gasping breaths were wracking his body and his eyes were squeezed tightly shut. He held his head in his hands and his shoulders were shaking.

I glanced around. He hadn't realized that I was there yet. Everything was in disarray. Shelves overturned. Clothing flung about. His mattress from his bed was leaning on the opposite wall.

Aerrow never kept much in the way of personal effects, but those that he had were decorating the room like a hurricane had been in there. Even some of the furniture that was bolted to the wall had been torn away and flung.

I finally realized then, I think, how much Aerrow had grown himself. Broad, tall, and strong, he could best all but Junko in a physical fight. I had counted on Aerrow's strength, just has he had relied on my aim. And right then, standing there watching my best friend losing it, I began to get an inkling of how he actually felt.

And I knew that I had to be the one to start talking to him. He had learned his role of leader far too well. He would never be the first to back down.

So I went to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and stared up at me, bloodshot. "What do you want, Finn?" he bit out.

"I just want to talk to you, dude."

He narrowed his eyes at me. For a long moment, he just stared with a betrayed look on his face, but he stood. "You're leaving."

"...Yes."

"Then we have nothing to talk about."

I grabbed his arm. "Is that it? We have nothing to talk about? I spent six YEARS right here with you and now we have nothing to talk about?"

He tried to shake me off, but I held on tighter. "Oh, no, Aerrow. I know that more than six years of friendship rates me more than a cold shoulder. Its not the end of the world! For Atmos' sake, I'm twenty-one! You're twenty! You have your whole life ahead of you and you are acting like everything is over!

'We beat the bad guy and there's peace again. There hasn't been peace in more than twenty years since the Dark Ace defected! And now you can go do whatever you want. You don't have to fight anymore Aerrow! And neither do I."

Aerrow's face twisted and he shoved me back. I stumbled and caught myself on the wall. "Don't you think I know that Finn? Don't you? Its all great now. There's no more need for the Storm Hawks anymore, is there? You and Ada can go start a family! Piper and Stork can go be a family too! Hell, even Junko has plans. Everyone's happy, Finn. Everyone has plans and everyone has a future." He was shouting now. I could hear the raspy strain he was putting on his voice. "Everyone's got plans, Finn. Everyone but me!"

As though he realized what he was doing, he stepped away from me and visibly collected himself. I shifted my weight cautiously and waited to see what he would do.

After a tense moment, he looked up at me, then off to the side. "I thought we would be a team forever. I thought we would always be the Storm Hawks. We…" he shuddered and hung his head, his voice breaking a little, "we were a family."

If I were a more sentimental guy, I would go into how much this hurt, to see him like that. But I'm Finn, the sarcastic sharpshooter. I don't do sentimental.

But that didn't stop me from hauling my best friend into a rough hug. "We'll always be buds, Aerrow." I pushed him to arm's length and let him go.

What? Guys are allowed to hug. In only a few select cases. Its governed by a series of complex rules. Just trust me when I say this was one of those instances.

Aerrow stared back at me bleakly. "It doesn't change the fact that you're leaving. So will everyone else. Its just a matter of time."

"But it's the way it has to be." I tried to say it gently, but he still flinched. "It's not goodbye forever, man. You, Junko, Piper, hell, even Stork, are all going to visit me on Vapos. We'll still go out riding together. We aren't going to just lose touch. We've been through way too much together to do that."

He didn't say anything to me. He just looked around his mess of a room, head down. I opened my mouth to say more, but all of a sudden, I realized the futility of my efforts.

If he didn't want to come around, nothing I did, short of breaking off my engagement, would do it. And even then, I don't think he would want me to do something so drastic even if I were willing.

I turned and picked my way over the clothes and the keepsakes that littered the floor. It took me a few moments to navigate my way to the door and when I reached it, I pushed it open.

"Finn," came Aerrow's voice as I prepared to step over the threshold. He sounded weighed down and tired. And alone.

"Yeah?"

"I'm…I'm going to miss you."

I paused at the door and glanced over my shoulder. He was still standing there in the center of the space. His head was low, chin on his chest, and his hands dangled helplessly at his sides. I was struck by how much he resembled a lost child.

"I'm going to miss you too, Aerrow."

--

Yep. I had no idea how to handle Ada...I didn't put much thought into her. xD I just needed a gal for Finn to run off to.

And Ambel pulls this off. Go her!

Thanks for following along with this 'fic, and thanks for the reviews. We're halfway done!


	4. I can't

This chapter here...this one was fun to write. Just so you know. x3

Sorry that I kinda reused the idea from my last oneshot. Also, if you recognize the reference to my first chapterfic, then HALLELUJAH! You're my friend. Right now. I love you.

Hehe. Anyway, thanks as always to my wonderful betas. You guys are awesome. And thanks to you, the reader...for reading. And possibly reviewing. Reviews are much loved.

--

I can't do this.

What possessed me to tell her how I felt? What possessed _her_ to accept those feelings, and even return them? I'm a merb. Merbs aren't supposed to have such feelings of affection, let alone _tell_ someone about them. Especially the one they harbor that affection for.

Not that I'm complaining about being able to have emotion or attachment. That's one of the biggest reasons I left my terra.

And it's not that I don't like Piper. 'Cause I do.

It's just...so difficult for me to comfortable with the physical affection she loves to give and receive. The touches, hugs, kisses. I enjoy it, but every time she gives them, my automatic response is to lock up. She rarely gives me warning for these things, and my mind races wildly when I'm surprised. And trust me, being touched is startling.

I guess that's kinda my fault, though. In the years I've spent away from Terra Merb, I could've tried harder to lose those instincts. But, instead, I hid behind the dark, unwelcoming personality that the Storm Hawks somehow put up with from the beginning. It seems impossible even now that they actually liked me and wanted me around. Atmos knows how hard I tried to push them away when we first met. I didn't want to be on a squadron, I didn't want to face those dangers, and I certainly didn't want to be stuck living with such happy, optimistic, outgoing people.

Back then, I thought it was unfortunate that another describing word for these kids was 'persistent'. I fixed the _Condor_, and for free no less, and they rewarded me with constant badgering to fly her for them. I only wanted to try it once. After all, this was the _Condor_ we were talking about. The famous carrier that broke the air speed record, and survived all the battles and adventures of the previous Storm Hawks.

Of course, after that, I was hooked. That, and they wouldn't take no for an answer when they found out how well I worked with the old ship. None of them knew how fly such an old model, and were having a hard time finding someone who could and would. No pilot in their right mind wanted to join an odd bunch of dreaming kids with virtually no chance of becoming a real, registered squadron.

So they got me. The crazy, weird-looking, paranoid merb who only stuck around because he liked their ship. And they were _happy_ about it. I never understood why. I guess I just somehow fit in with their ragtag style.

I knew why Piper liked having me around. It was because she was no longer the only one who had to argue with Finn anymore.

I remember the first time I made her smile. And I don't mean her usual smile, or the excited one she gave me when the Storm Hawks gained a pilot, or even the triumphant, amused one she wore whenever I made some sarcastic remark about Finn. I mean one that came with the warm, grateful expression that makes my stomach twist into violent knots. It was the first dinner we all shared together on the Condor. Finn and Junko had started a small food war and pulled Aerrow into it, and Piper had given up on trying to stop them.

Inside, I was panicking. Was this typical mealtime behavior? I had left Merb years before, but I mostly kept to myself. This was the first time I had ever eaten dinner with others who weren't merbs. It was apparent from Piper's complaints that she didn't like the three playing with their food, and I knew she had prepared it. It wasn't it expected that I...join the guys? 'Cause if that's how it was going to be, I would rather go hungry every night or find some other way to eat dinner away from them. I didn't care if it was customary, it was just stupid.

When Aerrow challenged me to a pea-flinging battle, I did what had come naturally and cringed, declining disdainfully. I would rather look rude than look like an idiot and ask if throwing food around was normal. It was slightly relieving that he just shrugged it off and continued to sword-fight Junko with knives.

Piper just looked disgusted over the whole thing. Knowing how immature those three could be, even though I had only known them all for over a week, I assumed that they were the ones being impolite. So I simply ate the food.

Then I remembered that people usually thank others when they do something for them, or when receiving a gift. I figured that it wouldn't hurt to say it, so I thanked Piper and told her that I liked what she had made.

I hadn't thought that would actually make her that happy. Her face brightened up and she returned the thanks for the compliment, taking it as an opportunity to tell me how she prepared the meal and how much effort she had put into it. The information never sank in, mostly because my mind was busy trying to get used to the fact that she was smiling at _me_. Happy because of something _I_ said. It was uncomfortable, but at the same time, I was somehow glad that I did. It was confusing. I didn't like these people, I didn't care.

But really...I knew I was beginning to. It's not natural for a merb to have friends, but these people, as much as they could annoy me and irritate me to no end...I began to feel attached.

There's always been that part of me that wants to be detached from everyone. It was trained into me, like every merb, that everyone will die one day. That if you don't let yourself befriend anyone, or make any kind of connection on an emotional level, you won't care so much when they're gone. It's logical, right? Well, I knew that kind of thinking was wrong. I wanted to care about someone. I wanted to be cared for. I wanted to feel regret for those that die.

Terra Merb's inhabitants are nothing more than emotionally-bereft, cowardly machines. I knew it was wrong, and there had to be something better than that kind of life. So I left.

However, it did little to silence the part of me that wants to be alone. Scared of starting any kind of relationship. And it didn't help that most people avoided me anyway. Everyone knows that merbs are dull and unfriendly. That's why they don't leave the terra, and don't welcome visitors.

I told myself early on that I didn't want to like them, and continually reminded myself that they could get tired of my attitude at any time and replace me. I mean, we traveled everywhere. They could've found another pilot for the _Condor_. They never even threatened.

Daily I'm reminded how different merbs are from the rest of the races on Atmos. I used to think they were all odd, how most of them were driven by emotion and passion rather than logic and survival. But I've realized that merbs are the odd ones. What's survival worth if you don't have a passion in your life? Not a lot, I can tell you that. People live much, much happier lives out here, even if it may be shorter than it could be.

I've learned a lot, having friends.

So don't get me wrong. I care a lot for Piper. I'd say I...loved her, if it weren't such a hard thing thing to do. I want to fully be there for her, to easily give her what she wants and needs. She's been patient with me, slowly trying to work past every block and barrier that was built up in my life. And I appreciate it. A lot. Probably more than she knows.

But she deserves better.

And I feel guilty because I know there's someone else, someone better, who loves her, too.

OoO

Pacing nervously, I shuffled down the hallways.

I knew what I was going to say, but that didn't make it easier to do in my mind.

Aerrow had been a lot more approachable lately. He'd even been talking to Finn again the last few days. Not freely and happily like he used to, but at least he wasn't angry anymore. He seemed to finally be accepting everything. But I didn't know if it would last. That's why I had to do this now.

Deep breath. _I can do this._

If I could _find_ him. Where was he? I had already checked all the main rooms, including the hangar, and even a couple storage rooms along the way. I had just checked his room, and he wasn't there, either. I was getting more and more jittery by the minute.

Gah, of course it wasn't going to be that easy. It wasn't bad enough that I was dreading this already, but the ordeal was being dragged out longer than it had to be. Maybe I should just try again later, or even tomorrow.

So much for 'I can do this'.

No. I was going to get it over with now. No more putting this off.

As I walked through the bedroom section, I found that the door to Piper's old room was open. She hadn't used this room for a long time. After she started spending late nights working on her crystals, she decided to move to a room farther away from the others and give them all a few more hours rest. Besides, it had taken so much repair work over the first few years, things began falling apart anyway.

Since open doors are one of things I have a hard time tolerating, by habit, I went to close it. But, just as I reached for the button, I was stopped by the sight of Aerrow sitting in there on the floor, back against the wall, a faraway look on his face.

"Hey, Stork."

I jumped a little at this unexpected situation, but had enough presence of mind to reply. "Ah, hey, Aerrow. Uh...what are you doing in here?"

He shifted his gaze from me to the wall opposite him. Instead of answering my question, he asked one of his own. "Do you remember the time we were all trapped in this room for hours?"

"...Yeah, I do. We're all a little young to be forgetting something like that. Unless you have any suspicion that we were invaded by memory slugs at some point?" I knew what he meant, but I couldn't help but give him a hard time for asking that kind of question. ...Besides, it was possible.

Aerrow cocked a small smile. It looked almost odd on him now. "Nah, I was just recalling the moment."

It couldn't hurt to humor him. "Contemplating how Finn survived and is still with us today?"

The smile grew. "He _was_ pushing Piper to have those murderous thoughts."

Years ago, Piper had found a new type of crystal and worked with it for weeks. When she was sure that she had made a breakthrough, she dragged all of us in to witness the discovery of what the crystal actually did. When she activated it, though, it created a clear force field bubble around the room, trapping us all inside. We had to wait until the crystal used all its power before we could leave. But, in the meantime, it seemed like all we did was fight and complain. Aerrow and Junko had tried to convince us that it could be okay, but even they eventually fell prey to our cloud of poor attitudes.

"He can have that effect on people."

Aerrow sighed. "Yeah, but we all love the guy anyway."

As much as I hated to admit it..._really_ hated to admit it, even to myself...Finn was an essential part of the squadron, and though I never liked to call him a friend, he was. He had proven himself to be not as huge of an idiot as I originally thought, had shown loyalty and capability, and even saved our lives several times.

We had all saved each other's butts so many times over the years that even _I_ lost count. And that's saying something.

So, even if he could still get on my last nerve...I guess I can say that I'm happy he's still around.

For now, anyway.

When I didn't reply, the sky knight spoke again. "Still, that wasn't as bad as when the security system you installed on the Condor malfunctioned and trapped us on the bridge for an entire day." he chuckled.

"I still stand firm on that being Finn's fault, too."

"And it's probably true," he shrugged, "but if he never got us into things like that, we wouldn't have half as many fun stories to tell."

"'Fun'. Right." Though my words were laced with sarcasm, a part of me knew I agreed. Most of it makes me shudder to recall, but it's always enjoyable to bring up things to complain and rag on him about. He'll argue about things until the day he dies, but that's why I do it. I like to argue.

The look on Aerrow's face told me that he could see past my answer. It was almost hard for anyone to hide things from the rest of the squadron. We'd all come to know each other far too well.

As the next moment was spent in silence, I knew I had to bring up the uncomfortable subject that I dreaded talking about. If I put it off, I'd never be able to say it later. But my vocal chords weren't cooperating. My mind screamed for me to get it over with, to just spit it out, but apparently my voice was having bad reception with my brain. Or it was pretending to. Either way, the instructions weren't being received.

I thought for a moment that maybe I had come down with vocal chord paresis, but I hadn't had any other symptoms of that or of anything that could've caused it. No, I was being excessively paranoid over a stressful situation. Paranoia is a good thing, but in cases like this, I had to tell myself to stop trying to blame my weaknesses on things with such a low percent chance of actually happening.

Good thing Aerrow picked up my discomfort, or else I might've stood there longer with my mouth open, looking like an idiot.

"...Got something on your mind, Stork?"

Suddenly, my voice returned. "Um, yeah. I was just looking for you a minute ago, and, well...we need to talk. About something. And I don't mean like the talking we were just doing, but like, uh..." Just great. I hate it when I start rambling 'cause I'm nervous.

He nodded and turned toward me, ready to give his full attention. "What is it?" His voice was calm and steady, but I noticed the slight lines of concern etched into his expression.

"It's...about Piper."

His face fell. Yep, now he knew why I was so loathe to bring it up. It was a touchy subject between the two of us. "What about her?" he asked warily.

This was it. I could still back out now and make up something else to cover it up. It was an option. A possibility. A...really stupid thing to do if I wanted it to be finally said.

So I just let him have it.

"Aerrow, I know you have feelings for Piper. You always have, and I've always known. But you never told her. In all the years you could've done it, all the perfectly good chances you had to do it, you didn't."

My words now spilled out of my mouth like vomit. In quick, nearly uncontrolled, unpleasant bursts.

"I know you probably had your reasons. And I don't know how I was able to tell her how I felt, either. But I can't help but think that doing that was totally selfish of me. You're just...you could give her so much more than I ever could. I know you could. You can display your emotions easier. You don't have problems with personal space issues. You're stronger than I am in many ways. And you could give her a family. Something I could never do, being so different than her. You're perfect for Piper, and I'm just...not."

At this point I began to wind down, feeling weighted down by the words I had heaved out.

"I don't know what things would be like now if I hadn't told her. Maybe you would've gotten up the courage to tell her yourself. Maybe she has feelings for you, too. I know she cares a lot about you. So, what I'm getting at is this..."

I took a deep breath.

"I'd really like for you to confess to her. I won't feel right, and I know you won't feel right if it goes unsaid. I don't want her to stay with me if she'd rather be with you. She should be able to choose, and I wouldn't be surprised if decides to go with you. Just know that you don't have to feel guilty if she does. I can handle being alone a lot better than you can."

It had taken a lot for me to say all that, and I felt drained. At last purged of what had been brewing for a long time.

That didn't make the moment any less awkward, though. This was another big reason why I never liked to open up to people. I hated these situations.

He was shocked, obviously. He'd probably never suspect that I'd ever say something like that. I don't blame him, I almost didn't. It was a hard topic to talk about, and bringing something like this up was just not like me. He sat there, just looking at me with a dumbfounded stare.

"Stork..." he began, finally finding the words to say, "I thought you liked Piper."

"I do, Aerrow. That's why--"

Standing up, he cut me off sharply. "Then why don't you respect her decision?"

Now it was my turn to wear the dumbfounded expression.

"She chose _you_. It took all of us a while to get used to it, but even I have come to accept that." He glared at me, anger and disbelief written on his features. "If you haven't yet, then you should fix that problem."

He towered over me and I felt cowed by his words. Where I found the backbone to argue back, I've no idea. "Don't you ever think that maybe I have too many problems to fix?" I shot back, "That maybe I can't stand hold they hold me back...how they hold _her_ back?"

Aerrow started raising his voice louder. "So, what, you're just going to give up on her?"

"No!" I shouted, fists clenched by my sides. "It's not her I'm giving up on, it's _me!_ And she should do the same thing! _I'm not worth it!"_

The room fell silent again, only this time the air seemed to buzz with the tension of our conversation, our minds racing to catch up with what we had just said.

Winding back down, I spoke again. "I can't let her waste time on me when she could be with you. I just can't do it anymore."

I knew he hated that word. At one point, he had made it an official rule that we shouldn't say 'can't'. It was a four-letter word. Because 'can't' sets you up for failure, and he said that if you try hard enough, you can do almost anything. The blinding optimism of the rule almost made me want to puke rainbows and butterflies. After it was set in place, I had done my best to say it at every opportunity, just to express my displeasure. And Finn had no problem pointing it out every time. I got my revenge easily enough though, since he had a hard time remembering to enforce it himself. Eventually Aerrow just let it go for everyone else, but I knew he still kept up the standard for himself...at least, up until the Final Battle. He'd become a lot more down-to-terra after that.

He looked to the floor, running a hand through his hair like he always did when faced with a difficult or upsetting situation. Finally, he sighed. "You may have problems, but self-confidence is the only one you really need to work on."

Can't say I was expecting that. Don't know how I expected him to react about any of this. I just knew I had to say it. I think if I had tried thinking about the aftermath, I only would've succeeded in trying harder to talk myself out of it.

"I mean, can you even see how Piper treats you?" he continued. "She doesn't care how flawed you are. Do you know what I would do for her to act towards me the way she does to you? But you're my friend, Stork, and a great guy. You'd never do anything to purposely hurt her. No matter how much I'd love to be in your position, I'm not going to let you try to throw all that away so easily."

My mind froze. I could take regular acts of friendship, but it was moments like these where I didn't want to let it get to me. When the flood of truly 'warm and fuzzy' feelings came roaring painfully towards my chest, it was all I could do to block it off. It scared me to feel so happy or grateful to someone. I didn't want it...but at the same time, I couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to allow it. Nevertheless, I it blocked up in my throat and choked it away, forcing my mind to think of something else.

"...Thanks. I, ah, I 'preciate it..." I mumbled, finding it hard to meet his eyes. "But, still, we'd both feel better if you told her how you feel."

He took a moment to consider my words. I hoped he'd answer soon. I didn't know how much more of this I could take.

Sighing again, the sky knight replied wearily, "I guess it would be good to clear my head of all this. I'll tell her, but there's no way I'm going to attempt to take her away from you, got it?"

I nodded quickly, glad to take what I could get before getting out of here. "Good. Uh, thanks." I turned to exit the room, desperate for freedom from this discussion, but Aerrow stopped me just before I could.

"Just remember that Piper really, really cares about you. The problems you have don't matter to her as long as you're doing your best for her. That's all she wants."

As I walked away, everything he told me rang through my mind. He had said everything with such conviction that even I wanted to believe it.

Could I possibly be good enough? Could I finally learn to let go of my insecurities?

I guess...maybe I could. I wanted to hope so, but my pessimistic tendencies were loathe to let me comfortably do so.

Really, it all depended on Piper now.

--

El gasp! Stork, how could you? D:

The soap opera continues on next time, in...CHAPTER FIIIIIVE!


	5. Looking forward

Here's Junko's chapter. Hope I got him right! -crosses fingers- He's a bit difficult for many authors out there, it seems...

--

I'm gonna miss everyone.

I mean, really, really miss them.

We've all been together for so long; I guess I never thought it would end. We had such a good thing going. Live each day in the moment, for each new mission or goal, do our best with it, and have fun. And we've had a lot of fun.

But we've had a lot of hard times, too. Times where we argued and fought with one another. Times when we fought with our enemies. Times when we couldn't say for sure if we would even make it out of a situation alive.

Through everything, we've been there for each other. Even if we didn't particularly want to be. The five of us having to live together on the _Condor_…sometimes we just got sick of being around the same people all the time. It was rare for me to be like that, since I was just happy to have people who liked me, but there were clashes. Sometimes more often than not. I hate to say it, but most of the fights were Finn's fault. His personality collided with Piper's and Stork's so often, that it was actually weird if a day or two went by that he didn't cause some sort of trouble for someone else.

And even after all of that, we were all upset when he told us he was leaving.

Yeah, we had gotten used to the kinda stuff he did. It was part of the routine. Daily life. A comfort, even, knowing that all was right with the Atmos as long as Finn was still being Finn. But it was more than that. He was a friend. Family. Even Stork liked him at this point, even if he wouldn't admit it.

Finn's always been my best friend, right from the start. He was the first person to ever treat me like I was normal. Even the others were a bit unsure of me in the beginning, with my appearance and the odd way I acted. I was really shy when I first met everyone, and I could hardly get my mind to form the words I wanted to say. I was just a big guy who said weird things half the time.

That hadn't mattered to him, though. He accepted me instantly, calling me his bud and recruiting me as his partner in crime since neither Piper nor even Aerrow would go along with him in his escapades. I figured he was just using me as a kind of sidekick, but I didn't mind. It made me feel more welcome. And after I felt more comfortable, and the other two were more comfortable with me, I was able to just be myself. By the time Stork came around, I felt right at home.

As time went on, though, I realized that Finn had needed a close friend as much as I did. I guess he still kinda used me, but that's just how he was, and I didn't care.

Okay, I did care when he got bossy, or got us both in a ton of trouble, but he was still a good guy, really.

Back on Terra Wallop, things are a lot different. There, very few people allowed me to be who I wanted to be. And after those few were gone, I couldn't stand living there anymore. I gave up on trying to find someone who cared about me, and hoped I'd have better luck on another terra. Away from my own people. I'm ashamed to have come from a place where coarse, brash attitudes were the standard, at least for the guys. Girls were allowed to be just a little bit more sensitive, especially mothers, but even they looked at me in contempt. Besides my own mom, and my aunt, of course.

Being part of the Storm Hawks have been the best years of my life. I treasure my friends more than anything else.

But I came to understand that this stage of my life was coming to a close. We had all grown up and the war was over. Breaking apart was inevitable. And it hurt that Finn was the first to go, but at least he talked to me about it now. Of everyone, I would miss him the most.

I knew it would be hard to adjust to life without everyone, without living on the _Condor_ anymore. The _Condor_...this ship was our home. No matter how many times she broke down, she always managed to pull through for us. Stork was really good at coaxing that out of her. We never would've gotten anywhere without him. We wouldn't have gotten far without any one of us. We were a team, and we relied heavily on each other.

That's why it would be so hard to let that go.

I knew how Aerrow felt when he got upset with Finn...though I think it was more the fact that we wouldn't be complete anymore that really got to him. I didn't want Finn to go. I wished we could somehow stick together like we always did. But I accepted that we couldn't quicker than Aerrow did. After I thought everything out, I knew we would all have to move on.

It wasn't goodbye forever. It would never be the same, but we'd still visit and talk. I tried to remain optimistic, but after the war...I just felt crushed. It felt like I had left a part of me on the battlefield, part of me I could never get back. Seeing friends fall in battle and watching someone die by your hand does that to you, I guess.

For a long time I was just numb. I felt empty. Everyone, from all sides, went in fighting for what we believed in, and many never came back. Too many. I was naive to hope that we could end it all without the tremendous amount of bloodshed that had occurred. And now, I didn't want to remember it. I didn't want to think about the rage that came over me and the desperation to live past that day. I didn't want to think about the lives I had taken, the men and women that would never return home to their families. And I didn't want to think about the friends who died alongside us. It wasn't enough to say it was horrible. It was the worst thing I had ever been through, and I was doing my best to try and forget it.

What would I do now? On my own, without the people I cared about most in the whole world?

I could easily start my own mechanics shop. People all over the Atmos knew my name now, having been part of the famed Storm Hawks. I might have customers from all kinds of terras coming in.

But I also wished I could do something that involved kids. If not for the fact that they are a lot more fun than most other mechanics, then to just be able to look into innocent eyes again. Eyes that hadn't witnessed the kind of things I had. I'd love to have kids of my own, but...well, maybe I'd find another wallop like myself one day. I could still hope.

So I figured...why not kind of combine the two? I could teach kids mechanics! It could work, right?

After I had some sort of plan in mind, it made it a little bit easier to handle having to leave. If things had to change, it felt better to have some sort of direction to head in.

I guess that's why Aerrow was having such a hard time with all of this. What else could he do? It seemed like he was just born to be a Sky Knight. I couldn't see him doing anything else. And it's not like he could stand to lead a different squadron, or a new Storm Hawks. There wasn't a whole lot for a squadron to do these days. Besides, I doubt he would want to try and replace us like that. If he did continue being a Sky Knight, I'd have to stay by him. My conscience wouldn't let me leave. And I know the others would feel bad, too.

No, he'd have to find some other way to spend his days. And we wouldn't allow him to let himself go and become a bitter man with an empty life. Before we, or at least I, would leave, we'd make sure he found a new purpose. Something new to live for. We love him too much to let him to that to himself.

I couldn't imagine that, anyway. I'm sure a lot of his anger was focused towards knowing that he really didn't have a choice in this huge change. He wanted everything to stay like it was, and I understood that. I really did.

But it was time to move forward.

OoO

Sitting on my bed, I looked at the things I had collected over the years in our travels. A lot of it was interesting bits of shiny metal, but there were a few other items and pictures here and there around my room. People may call all of this stuff junk, and maybe to their eyes, it is. But those certain few things...those things had memories tied to them.

There was a rock sitting there on a shelf. Why would I keep an old rock? Well, this one Finn told me to keep. A couple years ago, Aerrow had gotten really upset over the stuff that had been happening lately, and losing a battle, and a terra, to the Dark Ace had finally sent him over the edge. He started stalking around the _Condor_, snapping at anyone who tried to talk to him. He went outside to the terra we had landed on to let off some steam, and we all witnessed him trip over this dumb rock. It made him so angry that he began yelling every swear word he knew at it, some that I didn't even know at the time. He kicked it and threw it... It was the first time we had ever seen him show that emotion so strongly. So after Aerrow had calmed down, Finn went and found the rock and told me to keep it somewhere. _If our Sky Knight gave it that many strong names, it has to be special. _Even Aerrow laughed at that.

I looked down at a box next to my bookshelf. It contained all the records Finn had given me. There was even one in there that he had convinced me to sing with him on, though it ended up being a guitar-thrashing scream fest. Neither one of us can remember what the words to the song were, and with the volume, there's no way we could tell what we were saying. Though, if you listen close enough, you can hear Piper banging on the door in the background, yelling at us to stop the horrible racket. We may not remember the lyrics, but we won't forget how much fun we had recording it.

Then my gaze traveled over towards a corner of my room. There rested a metal detector. On one of our many trips to Terra Tropica, I lost my lucky old compass that had been given to me on my tenth birthday. It had somehow fallen off my skimmer, where I usually keep it, and fell into the sand. We had come in with a storm, so by the time I got to the place I might've dropped it, the sand had covered it and I couldn't find it anywhere. It upset me so badly that I couldn't enjoy our little vacation, and spent most of it in the _Condor_ with Stork, sulking and being miserable. The day before we left, the Merb approached me with this device, saying he had made it so that I could find my compass. I had been so thrilled. Not only could I find it now, but it was the first time Stork had shown that he actually kinda cared about me individually. He wouldn't take my thanks, though, mumbling on that it was only because he had little else to do and he liked having the ship to himself during these things. I knew better.

And over on my desk, I saw a frame that held a picture of me, Finn and Radarr, surprised at being caught raiding the 'fridge sometime around midnight. It had been taken by Piper with the camera Finn had saved up for and bought for the specific purpose of trying to catch the others doing embarrassing things or making weird faces. So, the minute Finn had left it alone in his room, Piper had taken it and snapped as many of those pictures of him that she could get. She let him have the camera back eventually, since it _was_ his, but she had confiscated the film and destroyed all really good ones. She did let us keep the ones she had taken of him, though.

Suddenly, I was snapped out of my thoughts by a voice. A voice that belonged to a certain blonde marksman.

"_Hello, crew of the_ Condor," Finn drawled over the intercom, overdoing his 'southern flight captain' impression. "_this is yer good-lookin', sharpshootin' captain speakin'. I'm broadcastin' this message to report a missin' person. A full grown male wallop, 'bout seven an' a half feet tall, short bluish-green hair. If found, please turn 'im in at the bridge. Thank ya, an' ah hope y'all have a nice day._"

I couldn't help but smile. I knew Finn was sad about leaving too, but he could never stay depressed about anything for very long. And I knew I shouldn't, either.

OoO

"What's this about, Finn?" I asked, entering the room to find him leaning casually against a panel of controls.

A grin stretched across his face. "Ah, Junko, my man." he greeted cheerfully, approaching me to reach up and throw a hand over my shoulder. The look in his eyes told me what he was up to before he said a thing. "What say you and me have some fun?"

I laughed and shook my head. Man, it felt good to laugh. "What took you so long?"

"That's what I wanna hear!" he clapped me on the back. "So, I was thinkin' we could pull another 'mission: secret', if you're up to it."

'Mission: secret' was something the two of us had come up with when we first discovered a secret of the _Condor_. Finn had realized that there were some spaces and things around the ship we couldn't get to that just weren't filled or being used. It made sense to the both of us that those spaces were empty, and were designed to be rooms or passageways, so we searched for ways to get into those places.

Eventually, we did. We had been right.

Finn had told me that since they were built to be hidden, we would have to keep this a secret. We would continually sneak away to explore the dark places of the _Condor,_ and we wouldn't speak a word of it to anyone else.

Of course, the others had noticed our absences, and we just had a hard time keeping things to ourselves, so it got out. Finn was mad that Stork already knew about the passageways and didn't tell everyone, and in turn Stork was mad that we had found out. Aerrow, Piper and Radarr were mad at the three of us for handling it like a secret instead of letting everyone in on it.

So the 'mission' wasn't exactly a secret anymore, but we could still pretend that it was, for old time's sake.

Falling into the correct approach to the little game, I looked around to make sure no one else was around before whispering, "Sure, sounds good."

He gave me a thumbs up, and we snuck off to the nearest opening to a hidden room, suppressing our snickers like a couple of kids.

I'm not gonna lie. It was dumb, we both knew it, but it was fun to forget about everything else for a while and just pretend like the past few years never happened. We were gonna let all that go for now and just be the kids that we were at heart.

When we reached the entrance, we looked to see if anyone was watching, then oh-so-inconspicuously slid the wall to the side with a painful screech. Grinning like idiots, we stepped inside and grabbed two of the flashlights that were always waiting at the foot of the sliding door and clicked them on before shutting it just as noisily as we had opened it.

Lights were never installed here. It had been suggested that we use some of these rooms for more storage, and some of them were, but we wanted these dark corridors to retain their mysterious feel, so we always used flashlights.

And these places _were_ mysterious. Sometimes we'd end up in a completely different area of the ship than we thought we would. Finn actually got lost in the depths of this ship for a whole day once and we had to put a hole in a wall so he could get out. Stork hadn't liked that. Piper could argue with us all she wanted, but we were sure that it wasn't just our imaginations or Finn's incompetence with remembering directions. The _Condor_ felt almost haunted or something. And Stork hadn't disagreed with us.

But that's part of what made these 'missions' so exciting.

I was almost saddened again by the fact that this would probably be the last time we would ever do this, but I pushed that out of my mind. I wanted to fully enjoy this.

We chose our paths randomly, not bothering to remember which way we came. We'd find our way out eventually, but for now we decided to let the _Condor_ lead us.

I don't know how long we walked down the twisting, turning hallways. Coulda been a few minutes, coulda been a few hours. It was hard to tell.

It was weird, though. This time, we never had to turn back and find another route because the passage got too small for me to get by. That happened fairly often when we did this, but not once were we restricted access to continue on.

We didn't stop until we heard footsteps above us.

"Dude..." Finn whispered, "wonder who's up there?"

I shrugged. "Dunno."

"Let's follow 'um." Though he had his back to me, I could tell he was wearing that mischievous expression of his.

We kept up with the pace of the footsteps, treading as carefully as we could so that we wouldn't alert whoever it was above us to our presence below.

I didn't think it was Stork. It sounded too steady and confident. Nothing like the usual shuffling of our pilot. Unless someone else had boarded the ship, it had to be Piper or Aerrow.

"You hear that?"

Listening carefully, I heard another set of footsteps headed in our direction. When both pair of feet came to a halt, we hear muffled words being exchanged. I don't know how we had become so lucky, but there was a grate in the floor above us nearby. Finn motioned to me to follow him, and we climbed up on pipes that hugged the wall to our right so we could hear the conversation better.

"-ve been doing that, uh, quite a bit lately." Aerrow's voice said almost awkwardly.

Piper's answered him in turn, "Yeah, I have. It's really calming to sit out there by myself."

I heard a rustling noise, like paper being shifted, and possibly...pencils clacking together. Had she been out drawing on the runway again? Were we underneath the hangar? Just then I noticed that the room above us definitely smelled like engines and motor oil.

"...Look, Piper...I think we should talk."

"Yeah." she replied quietly.

Uh-oh. This was about to turn into something we probably weren't supposed to hear. I motioned to the blonde next to me that we should go, but the curious look on his face told me he didn't wanna go anywhere. I looked down at the pipe beneath our feet. It wasn't bolted to the wall as tightly as we had thought, and was now leaning to the side under our weight. If we moved now, it would snap back against the wall. And with the way things echoed down here... A bad feeling sunk into my gut when I realized that there was no way to leave without making a lot of noise.

The two above sat down by what I was sure had to be my worktable. Judging from where I figured we could be, that's where they were.

It was just a few feet from where we stood.

There was silence for a moment, then Piper sighed. "Aerrow, there's something I have to tell you."

He took a deep breath. "Me too. But...you go first."

"Alright." She was quiet for a few seconds, seemingly steeling herself for what she was about to say, before she announced, "Stork and I...we're leaving too."

Finn noticeably stiffened beside me, but didn't seem too surprised. I really wasn't either. We had both seen it coming. But, we were apprehensive over how Aerrow was going to handle this.

"Yeah, I figured you would."

It was almost painful to hear our Sky Knight talk these days. He always sounded tired, worn out and lonely. When he wasn't angry or frustrated, that is. Either way, it hurt. He just wasn't the old Aerrow anymore. We had all changed, but what he had become...I just didn't know what to do with him. I wanted to be able to fix everything about our lives together that had been broken, but I wasn't sure it was even possible.

When Piper spoke again, it sounded like she felt the same way. "I'm sorry, Aerrow, I don't want to leave you guys, but...I--"

"I know." he interrupted. A sigh. "I understand. It's...selfish of me to think we could all stay together. You've still got a dream...and I want you to follow it."

There was a pause as she took this in. "...Thanks." she said, though her voice was tinged with guilt.

Silence.

"So...what is it you wanted to say to me?"

"Oh, uh," Now it was Aerrow who sounded guilty. "well...this is going to be awkward, but it's something I need to say."

I heard another pause. Another deep breath. Then when Aerrow started speaking, the words came out like an uncontrolled flood. "Piper...you're an amazing friend, but...I've looked at you as more than that. For years. I mean…I just…well-I know you probably don't need to hear this right now, but I have to tell you. I cant just keep it to myself because…well, I've wanted to tell you that for a while now. I couldn't let you leave without…I just wanted you to know." The last bit was spoken almost in a whisper.

I really wished I could get out of here. As much as I wanted to hear how this turned out, it didn't feel right listening in like this, especially now.

Finn was wide-eyed with interest. I didn't think he would be willing to move away from this position even if he could.

Piper began to say something, but Aerrow rushed on before she could get anything out. "Look, I know it doesn't change anything. I know," he said quickly, "You're happy with Stork. And I respect that. I do. I just...needed to tell you before you left. That's all."

The silence that followed rang heavily in my ears. And in everyone else's too, I'm sure.

Of course I knew he had feelings for her. Everyone did. I think even Piper might've figured it out. But it was just surprising that he would choose to tell her now.

_Come on, Piper, say something!_ My mind screamed in agitation. _Anything!_ I bit my lip. My insides screwed up with worry, and I hoped I could stay still and quiet until they left...something I wished would happen soon.

"O...okay..." she almost choked out. I could tell she didn't know how to handle this situation. And really, I couldn't blame her.

"You don't have to do anything about it, I just needed to--"

"I don't have to _do_ anything about it?" Piper was upset. "So, what, I'm just supposed to go on pretending like you never said anything?"

"Well, no...I mean, I don't know--"

It was scary how she could make him sound like an unsure kid with only a few words. Before he could even finish his reply, she cut him off again.

"Why would you... How am I..." she let out a cry of frustration.

"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you or anything." Aerrow put in quickly. In my mind's eye I could almost see him holding his hands up to her in a supplicating manner.

Another pause. She seemed to calm down but her voice was shaky. Almost like she was about to cry. "I know. I...I just didn't wanna hear this."

Wait a minute. The way she had reacted...did she share his feelings? What about her relationship with Stork? Did they have some kind of falling-out?

Maybe what she really wanted was to be with Aerrow. Maybe she didn't.

I was confused, and it made me feel sick inside that everything had become so complicated.

"I used to have a crush on you." Piper finally said. "If you had told me all this back then, I would've been thrilled…and things would probably be different now. But you didn't. Why?"

"I was going to wait until the war was over. We needed to focus on our mission." Even to my ears, that excuse fell flat. The way that Aerrow said it made me think that he felt the same.

"You still didn't say anything." Piper mumbled, "And you had plenty of time, Aerrow. You could have said something."

He gave a shuddering breath. I could only imagine how much courage it had taken him to say something-anything, to the one person he cared for so much, knowing that she was already out of his reach. The turn this conversation had taken was probably having the same effect as pouring salt and lemon juice into a gaping wound. "I was scared."

"You were scared." Piper stated. "You. I have never known you to be afraid of anything, Aerrow. So…isn't it odd that Stork found courage to say the same thing before you did?"

"I guess I never thought he would. To tell you the truth, I still find the two of you being together kinda odd."

"How long were you planning on leaving me hanging?"

"I…well, I wasn't going to say anything. Not after you and Stork got together. I didn't want to cause any stress or anything…you and Stork are two of my closest friends and…I just wanted you to be happy, I guess." He put a slight emphasis on the word 'you'. "But something made me realize…that I couldn't just leave without telling you. I don't know how long I would have waited…if I would ever have found the courage…but…"

There was another long lull, before I heard Aerrow's voice again, low and pained. "I guess it doesn't really matter now…"

"No, it doesn't." Piper said softly.

Another awkward quiet. After a minute, much to my relief, I heard the sound of someone standing up.

"I'm glad we could talk." Aerrow said, sounding anything but happy.

"Yeah..."

Footsteps made their way towards the door, but stopped when Piper spoke one last time. Even though her voice was strained with emotion and her tone shaky and upset, I couldn't agree with her words more.

"I still care about you, Aerrow. And… I'm going to miss you."

OoO

Our walk back was uneventful, and we said little. We each knew how the other felt, and there wasn't much to say.

When had everything changed so much? It was hard to say. It just kinda happened slowly over time, I guess. I can't say that change is bad, after all, a lot had changed for the better. But the rest just made me want to go back and live the old days over and over. Forever. And I knew I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

But change is one of those things you just can't stop. It happens whether you want it to or not. Ya just gotta take it as it comes and make the best of it.

As much as the years have changed even me, I can still hope. Hope that wherever life takes me or my friends, things will be okay. Even if it they won't, it's all in the way you look at it. You can either cling to what has happened, or look forward and see what good you'll find in it.

I guess we had all seen a lot in our lives. Good and bad. And sometimes, things had gotten to the point that the only good we were able to see was within each other. I wont lie, things had gotten pretty desperate by the end of it all. It was to the point that we had simply stopped thinking about what would happen 'tomorrow', and simply lived for the moment, because we never knew if our time would run out.

This change…well, it's probably the hardest one yet. We always had each other to lean on before, but now its going to take a whole new direction. Piper and Stork will be gone. Finn's all set up for his new life. Even I have a plan. But regardless, it's scary to think about a future where we won't be able to fall back on each other.

So I could kinda understand how Aerrow felt. Because I felt that way too.

Its going to be hard to go on without the team. They became more like my family than the people who raised me. I could hardly imagine what my life might have been like if they hadn't happened upon me…

They're the greatest friends I could ask for. I'm going to miss them all.

But, as much as it hurts right now, as much as I am afraid to see them go…

I'm gonna look forward.

--

Just a warning...the next chapter will probably be a while in coming. It's giving me a lot of trouble. Not only will it wrap things up and end this, but it'll be in third person. First person is a lot easier for me. Plus...that conversation between Aerrow and Piper ended up having a different feel to it than I had originally intended...so now I've got an unexpected problem to deal with. Aghm.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I know I've gotten a fair amount of hits for this story...not so many reviews, sadly. The reviews I have gotten are wonderful, but it would be good to know if everyone else is enjoying this and not just reading to get a good laugh. xD It doesn't take long to write a review, you know. Just click that button down there and tell me what you think.

The final chapter should be done...hopefully in about week. I'll definitely try to get it finished before then, but I don't know.

Seeya then!


	6. Goodbye

Er...you know how I said at the end of the last chapter that it'd probably be a week before this chapter? Um, yeah...sorry it's 5 months later. D: I've had the worst writer's block, plus at least 10 other good excuses. xD

But anyway, thanks a ton for waiting. C: On with the end!

--

Sitting at her desk, head resting on her arms, Piper had tried not to cry. She desperately wanted to keep the tears in, but she couldn't stop herself... Her unbidden tears soaked into her sleeves, and she hated it.

This wasn't how she was supposed to act. The Piper she tried so hard to be, the one everyone knew…that Piper wouldn't cry like this. She was strong, cheerful and confident, not a sobbing mess.

But with everything that had happened in the last few months...well, that was finally enough to bring even Piper down.

She cried for the war. All of the people who had fallen. The lives that were lost, and could never be found again. She knew so many of the people who had died, and she missed them. Though she knew it was irrational, she even felt guilty. She couldn't have done more to end it all before those casualties, but it didn't change the fact that she somehow believed there was something that she could have done differently. Something that she could have done to change the outcome of it all.

She cried for her friends. Her family. She knew what she had to do now, but it was going to be hard to leave them. Fighting face to face with Cyclonis was a small task compared to the difficulty she was going to have with saying goodbye to everyone.

And she cried for her most recent confusion. How could Aerrow say that? _Now?_ How was she supposed to feel about this?

She hadn't had thought about him like that for years, but at his confession, all those feelings came rushing back. Were those feelings even real anymore, or were they more real than ever?

…What if they were?

What would happen when she finally left? And what would she tell Stork? She never kept anything from him anymore, so even if she decided to keep this to herself, he'd know something was wrong.

Stork...

She felt horrible about considering this. She still cared a lot for the Merb. It felt like she was already betraying him in her mind, even entertaining these memories and…feelings. It made her sick.

Piper knew that she had to sort through these emotions, but the deeper she tried to delve into what she really felt, the more she felt in over her head. So she tried to think about the situation from a logical perspective. Who needed her more? Right now, probably Aerrow. He was dealing with the worst of the loneliness out of the _Condor's_ inhabitants. But she knew that in time, he would recover. He always did. Stork, on the other hand, would probably stop taking steps in the direction she'd been leading him towards and eventually fall back into his old ways with no one around to help him along.

But even this wasn't the answer to her problem. No amount of reasoning could decide this. The solution had to come from more than just that.

What was she going to _do?_

Whatever it was, she was going to have to decide soon, because at that moment Stork knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" she croaked, quickly wiping away her tears and trying to get a hold of herself.

"It's, ah, me." the Merb answered, his worry apparent even through the door. "Is everything...okay?"

"Yeah… Well, no..." She sniffed. "I'm not sure. I don't know."

A pause, then, "...Do you want to be alone? Should I go, or--"

"You can come in, Stork."

After a second or two of hesitation, the door slid open and he shuffled in with an unsure expression displayed on his features. "Um...what's going on?"

She pressed her fingertips against her forehead in frustration and looked at the ground, unable to meet his questioning gaze. "Could you, maybe, give me a minute to think of how to tell you?"

"Alright."

The seconds ticked by slowly as Piper tried to get her thoughts in order, and Stork stood in the middle of the room, tapping his fingers together anxiously.

Why would she suddenly begin to have feelings for Aerrow again? She thought she had everything figured out. Or maybe...maybe it wasn't that kind of emotion she felt for him anymore. Was it possible that she was mistaken? Perhaps what she was feeling was just regret. Regret that he hadn't spoken up sooner...or regret for ever thinking that way about her Sky Knight at all.

Glancing at the pilot a few feet away from her, she felt a wave of something disgusting fall over her, clinging to her skin. Guilt. Her stomach churned.

What if she just let go of the idea, and returned to just being with Stork? That had been the plan, and it was a good one. Why give it up so easily just because someone else spoke up?

And really, how could she?

Piper looked up at Stork again. She looked up at a _Merb_. A Merb who, despite everything that was natural for his kind, was standing here today. He had taken a huge leap in joining the Storm Hawks, and had stayed with them to this day. He could've left. He could've easily taken off, given up, ran away. This kind of dangerous lifestyle was unheard of for a Merb, and yet he still weathered day after stressful day, conquered fears, and even enjoyed it at times.

He would deny it, but he was probably the strongest person she had ever met because of it.

Their relationship was tough to navigate, she wouldn't deny it. It wasn't perfect, and it could be frustrating. But, she realized, that's what she wanted. It was a challenge. Something to work at. Something she could cling to...because it was something that felt _real_.

So, she figured things out. But now, what would she say?

Finally, Piper took a deep breath and made the decision to simply come clean and tell him what had happened earlier that day. He should know. "Aerrow told me...that he saw me as more than a friend. For years. And I...I didn't want to hear it." She didn't want him to say anything just yet, so she continued quickly, filling him in completely. "And that's because...well...I thought I might sorta feel the same way." Now she was just plain scared to look at him.

She fixed her eyes on the hands in her lap. "I was just confused, and I didn't know what to do about it. But I've really given it some thought, and I've come to see that confusion was all it really was."

Unable to look up, she waited for what he would have to say.

"...Is that really all it was?" he asked quietly.

If her tears weren't already spent, she probably would've had to fight them back again. "I'm sorry, Stork. I didn't want to think that way, I just...I'm sorry."

The longer it took for him to reply, the harder it was becoming to try meeting his gaze. When she finally forced herself to look up, she was surprised to see that wasn't shocked in the slightest over her confession. He hadn't expected this, had he?

"You already knew?"

Stork didn't know what to say. He almost wanted to deny it, but he knew that the truth would have to come out eventually. So after a moment of indecision, he nodded. "Yeah. Actually, I, uh..." Cringing, he cleared his throat and lowered his voice, "I kinda...asked that he would finally tell you."

There was a shocked silence, before the storm hit.

"You _what!?_" Even if Stork had an answer for that, he wouldn't have gotten it in before she continued. "How could you...why would..."

Not for the first time, the Merb doubted that it had been a good idea to try all this. The anger and hurt in her eyes seemed to accuse him, and he felt incredibly small. "Piper, I just needed...you'd be better off with him. And...and if that's what you want, I won't stand in your way."

She didn't take it like he had hoped. "If you didn't want to be in this relationship with me, why didn't you just tell me?" Her voice was overflowing with so many different emotions...anger, hurt, confusion. Perhaps even betrayal. Why would he only say this now? "What, you think I can't handle it? Was this supposed to make things easier?"

"Piper, that's not it!"

She was now standing, staring him in the eye at a level height. "Then what is it? What could any of us gain from all of this?"

"Would you just _listen?_"

Piper fell silent at his outburst. Stork had grabbed her shoulders and was now looking hard at her.

"I care about you. A lot. Too much to let you pass up something better." He let go of her, completely uncomfortable with this entire situation. He looked down. "You'd be happier with him."

"You can't decide that." She crossed her arms. "What made you think I wasn't perfectly happy with _you?_"

"Do you really think you'll be content with putting up with all my problems all the time?" he argued.

"Do _you_ really think I haven't thought about that already? I don't mind, Stork. I'm prepared to do what it takes to help you through them."

The Merb squeezed his eyes shut and growled with frustration. "But there's too much! It would be so much easier for you to just--"

"To give up on you?" she interrupted, frustration of her own clearly evident. "No. I'm not going to. Not unless _you're_ not willing try at all. _I don't want easy, I want you!_"

Once again unable to easily come up with a reply, Stork just stood there, mouth slightly agape and speechless. This amazing woman, this beautiful, talented, kind, intelligent woman...actually cared for him that much. She _wanted_ him. She chose him over someone who, in his eyes, was the far better choice, and was willing to do what she had to in order to make their relationship work.

It was too good. It couldn't be real. He almost didn't want to believe it. He wanted to blame it on mind worms, or to begin doubting Piper's mental health. His mind automatically shut down any feelings of hope for the situation.

So, when he finally tried to think that maybe this _could_ be happening...

His heart pounded. His heart leapt up into his throat. _It's not true!_ his mind screamed, desperately clinging to disbelief, to what he considered to be safe. _Control your feelings! Think about it, you're not good for her, and your life is complicated enough without all of this!_

"Stork, I need you to decide." Piper continued, sounding pained. "If you don't feel the same way, please...tell me now."

His internal battle raged for a half second longer, but that moment contained an eternity. After his own fashion, he listed all of the pros and cons to himself in order to logic his way out of danger…before his heart won out and finally defeated his mind.

It almost hurt, the bucking of all of his preconceived notions, doubts and mistrust in that one crucial moment. When this finally happened, when he allowed himself this weakness, he broke down and embraced her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face into her long hair.

"I'm sorry..." he managed to whisper, trembling from the release of emotion.

She was a bit shocked that he would go so far as to hug her like this on his own, but it didn't take long for her to return the hug and pull him closer. Her eyes burned again, though she had been sure that her tears had been finished off earlier.

As glad as Piper was that they had cleared all of this up, she was even happier that Stork had finally had this breakthrough. Even through her own hurt, she recognized that it was a tremendous step for him. She understood what he had probably been struggling with, and it spoke of his true feelings and willpower that he had come out victorious. He'd still have trouble, but this was a good start on the right path.

And she knew that there would probably be many more times like this. They would argue. They would fight. They would have trials. She would have to go through more heartache and tears.

But without all that...life wouldn't feel right. Problems were real. Clashes happened. But it's pulling through those challenges together that brings you closer and makes everything worth it. Of course it would hurt sometimes, but pain shapes and defines you. Piper knew this, and she was ready to face it all.

She wanted Stork.

She wanted life.

OoO

Dishes clanked against each other. Chairs scooted across the floor.

No one said a word.

It was the first time in a long time that they had all eaten a meal together, and they prepared for it in silence. Aerrow and Stork avoided each other, Piper wouldn't look at Aerrow, and Finn and Junko watched the three of them, trying to figure out what exactly had gone on after their accidental eavesdropping.

They all longed for the simplicity of the years now passed. Back when they all had a mission, back when whatever awkwardness and tension that existed only lasted for a short time...back when everything was clear-cut. A lot of it wasn't easy, but as least they knew what they were doing. They had a plan. And before, they didn't have time for a mess like this. Things were resolved quickly, and lives went on.

Now...they no longer shared a common goal. They each had new paths to follow, ones that would lead them apart.

The Storm Hawks felt broken already, and they hadn't even gone anywhere yet.

Junko looked down at his plate, almost with disinterest. Usually he'd be the first to finish up, but tonight, he lacked the desire. They would only have a few more days together before Finn planned to move to Terra Vapos...why spend it like this? They should be making the best of what time they had left!

The blonde sitting next to him looked just about as lackluster as his friend, pushing his food around his plate and lost in thought...when Junko suddenly formed an idea.

Finn reached for his glass of water, but just as he pressed it to his lips, the wallop 'accidentally' nudged his shoulder, causing water to cover his chin and the front of his shirt. Finn blinked in surprise.

"_Whoops_." Junko said exaggeratedly, hiding a grin. "Sorry, Finn."

The sharpshooter looked up quizzically for a second, before catching on. "Oh, no problem." he replied, setting his glass down...well, upside-down, actually, on his own head.

Piper's eyes widened, but before she could say anything about cleaning it up, Finn stopped her.

"Hey!" He glared at the navigator, "What was that for, Piper?"

Confused, she let her fork drop to her plate. "What?" she asked in disbelief, not realizing what they were playing at.

Aerrow quickly lowered his head and, to everyone's surprise, was trying not to laugh. "No, Finn...don't blame Piper...that was...my fault." he managed between suppressed snickers. Then he took a piece of bread and threw it on Junko's plate. "But that...that was all Piper."

"Oh, wonderful." Stork muttered, rolling his eyes, "Not _this_ again." Though he expressed contempt for the silliness, and he wouldn't admit it, he was actually glad they had started this up again. He was a fan of silence...but not the awkward kind.

Finally, Piper recalled the stupidity the boys had started...maybe four years ago? She couldn't remember exactly when, but it had been a while. It was one night when Finn decided they would all compete to see who could stay up the latest. Piper hadn't liked the idea, but she hated to be the only one left out. Stork had only agreed because he didn't want them to do any damage to the ship and he was sure he could outlast them all anyway.

After about five in the morning, and after at least five cans of sky soda each, they had resorted to laying around on the floor, tiredly tossing snacks and random objects at each other, saying the most idiotic things, and laughing about nothing. Even _Stork_ had taken part in it...though, after some sleep, he had recalled his behavior with horror. Who knew that seven cans of liquid caffeine coupled with lack of sleep had that kind of effect on him? He had avoided soda ever since.

And so, this game was born. Do stupid things, and blame it on other people. Laugh about nothing and anything.

A smile slowly stretched its way across Piper's face. "Okay, so maybe I did..." She tossed what remained on Aerrow's plate to the floor. "But Aerrow! Why would you do that? Don't you like my cooking?"

Everyone stared at her in awe for a moment, surprised that she would actually go that far, before they all erupted in laughter...excluding Stork, of course, who wouldn't stoop to that kind of mindless hilarity.

"You've got it all wrong," the Sky Knight laughed, "I love your cooking! But I heard that Finn thinks he can do better!"

"Yeah, check it out!" Finn grabbed Stork's plate and arranged its contents into a weird smiley face. "See? Mine looks nicer!"

The Merb stood, giving them all a disparaging look. "May I remind you all that you're _adults?_" Before Finn could argue that it didn't matter, Stork continued, "And as such, I believe even you can do a lot better than that." With that, he dumped his own glass of water on the sniper's head, soaking it again. "Piper's cooking will always be better than yours." he finished, grinning triumphantly.

The laughter grew. Finn feigned a scowl. "Junko...hold the Merb down. I'll go get the sky soda."

Stork's eyes widened, and he quickly moved to the side of the table opposite from Finn and Junko. "You'll never get me, man..." he warned, tense and ready to run. "That's _not_ happening again."

They all knew it was stupid. It was dumb. They shouldn't be laughing this hard...but they knew more than anything else that they really needed this. To be able to laugh together again, even if there was hardly anything really to laugh at. Yes, they'd have to clean it all up afterwards, but it was a small price to pay to just have fun. They needed a few more days of just acting like the kids they were at heart and not worrying about the days to come.

This dinner became their unspoken agreement to put all their sadness aside for as long as they could...

Until the day that Finn would leave.

OoO

"Here, Finn, I'll get this one for you."

"Nah, I got it. It's the last one."

Finn and Piper stood in a hallway, a cardboard box between them in Finn's arms.

The navigator's face fell a little. "Oh. Alright."

They walked together, headed for the ramp that would take them outside, to Finn's new home on Terra Vapos, with the last of what he was taking with him.

He nudged her with his shoulder. "Y'know, as many times as you probably wanted to over the years, it's not like you're taking me to my grave or anything, Piper. You can quit acting like this is the last time you're ever gonna see me."

Piper managed a halfhearted smile, eyes downcast. "...I'll just really miss you, Finn."

The blonde grinned. "I know, I know...you're so in love with me you can't stand to be away from me for more than a single day. But trust me...as hard as it must be, you'll learn to get over me, one way or another."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, 'cause everyone knows how madly in love with you I am."

Sighing dramatically, he stared up at the ceiling with mock remorse. "It's true. But alas, fate has torn us apart. I must go to be with Ada, and you'll be stuck with..." he cringed, "...Stork."

Piper laughed. "Well, you're certainly making it easier to say goodbye. Keep this up, and I won't mind seeing you leave."

"Aw, you don't have to be like that! Just because our love was never meant to be--ow!" His jokes earned him a good punch to the arm. "Geez, you're a violent woman..." he said, moving closer to the wall, "Suddenly I remember _why_ the two of us would never work out."

"You liar. Since when do violent women turn you off? May I remind you of Dove?"

"May I remind _you_ that I'm not with Dove?"

"Point taken."

They laughed, joked, and poked fun at each other like good old friends do, but as they walked, they subconsciously moved to a pace slower than normal, really lingering at certain places on the ship and over certain jokes. Anything to drag this last day on as long as they could.

While they hadn't been in the beginning, they had definitely become two of the greatest of friends in the end. Staring danger, death and destruction in the face countless times together tends to do that to people...but growing up can do that, too, and they had gone through plenty of both.

So they laughed. But beneath that laughter, they both knew that the other's absence would be sorely missed...

Everyone would be missed.

OoO

Though the four of them hadn't planned to, they ended up staying there with Finn for the new few days. Their excuse was that Aerrow wanted to help fully unpack and to help with things in and out of the house, Stork wanted to make sure Finn's new home was adequately safe, Piper wanted to spend time with Ada and to make sure she knew what she was getting into marrying Finn, and Junko just wanted to have a few more days of fun with his buddy.

But they all knew that if they stayed any longer, it would become harder and harder to leave...and they had somewhere else to be.

They had called around, and found that a group of Blizzaran kids on Terra Nord wanted to become the new Absolute Zeroes, since the those left in the old squadron had retired, and they needed a mentor. Someone to teach them what they needed to know, how to fight well, and how to deal with the Atmosian council. And more than that, they needed someone who knew how to keep a good balance of fun and seriousness, and apparently the Nord squadron still hadn't fully warmed up to the Blizzarans.

They needed a great Sky Knight. Aerrow needed a purpose. It fit.

So he had promised to be there...and to get there on time, they would have to leave today.

Standing outside the _Condor_, the five of them just looked at each other. Finn wanted to keep talking, to say something that could keep them here for at least a few more moments, but talk was all he could do the last few days, and now there wasn't much left to say.

What was left would be the hardest...

And now it was time.

Aerrow was the first to speak, though it felt weird to him that out of all the things he had led his team into...he'd also have to lead them in saying goodbye.

"Well," he sighed, "this is it."

"You're sure we have to leave now?" Junko asked, trying to hide the pleading tone in his voice.

Piper put a hand on his shoulder. "You knew we couldn't stay here forever." She wanted to comfort him, but there wasn't much she could tell him that he hadn't already been told. "We have to take Aerrow to Nord. Then Stork and I are taking you to Wallop for a few days to visit your family, then the three of us will head over to Atmosia. That's the plan."

The wallop nodded, almost dejectedly. "I know..."

"Hey, hey, come on guys!" Finn grinned, attempting to lighten the mood. "I know you can't possibly live another day without me, but I can't have you guys all depressed when you go, I'll feel bad." He gave a mock disapproving look to Stork. "That means no sobbing all over yourself, dude. That would be embarrassing."

The Merb rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to hold it back until I get back in the ship."

"Thanks, man, I knew I could count on you!" the blonde jokingly threw his arms around Stork, pulling him into an unwilling hug. Though obviously in discomfort, the Merb stiffly allowed it, his expression twisted into one of distaste.

Unfortunately for him, as soon as Finn let go, Junko pulled everyone into a big group hug. "I miss you guys already!" the big guy exclaimed, taking out his unbridled emotion, love and sadness, on his friends. Everyone felt the same...but Junko wasn't afraid to be the first, and knew how, to channel it in the best way possible.

"Me too, big guy." Finn murmured, and a moment later the hug pulled apart. He returned his grin to his face, slapping Aerrow and Junko on the back. "Now get outta here, you crazy kids. You don't have to worry about me, I've got this whole Terra and Ada to keep me in my place. You guys still have people to go and places to meet, remember?"

Piper shook her head, smiling. It didn't matter how much time passed, Finn would always be Finn. "Yeah, yeah. Won't be the same without you embarrassing me everywhere we go, but I guess I'll survive."

"See, that's what I'm talking about!"

The blonde ushered everyone towards the _Condor_, and they turned to face each other one last time at the foot of the entrance ramp.

"Don't any of you forget to come visit me, alright?" he instructed, looking into each of his friends' eyes in turn. "I mean, I'll be busy here, but I'm never too busy to see my old squad mates every once in a while."

"Absolutely." Aerrow agreed.

"And by 'every once in a while', you mean you want us over at least once a month to hold your hand." Stork stated sarcastically.

Finn laughed. "You've got the idea."

"We might even have to visit more often than that when he starts having kids..." Junko put in thoughtfully.

There were a few seconds of silence while they all considered this, before Stork's eyelid twitched.

"And…there goes the Atmos."

OoO

Bare walls where posters used to be. An empty bin where records were once kept. A clean floor bereft of dirty clothes. A bed that a marksman would never sleep in again.

Finn's room...was no longer Finn's.

It was just a room now. The only sign that someone had once lived in it was an odd stain on the floor, and a lone guitar string peeking out from under the bed.

Empty and abandoned...save for three friends, who sat side-by-side against one of the four bare walls.

Junko had been the first to come in, only an hour after they had left Terra Vapos, already feeling the absence of his best friend. It wasn't like they had always been together before that day...sometimes he wouldn't see Finn all day. But right now...he couldn't feel his presence anymore. He knew that Finn wasn't there. There would be no more times when the blonde would burst into the room suggesting some new scheme he had come up with, he couldn't be found anywhere on the ship getting into something he shouldn't, and Junko couldn't just talk to him anymore. He'd have to call on the radio, and while he definitely would, it just wouldn't be the same.

Finn was gone. And it hurt.

So the wallop had come to this old room, to sit and to think. To remember...there was a lot to remember.

It shouldn't have surprised him, but somehow he just hadn't expected Aerrow to enter the room too, not long after he had. There was no awkward conversation, forced out to fill up the silence, just an unspoken understanding. They had both come here for the same reason, and there was no need for words.

Moments later, they had been joined by Piper, and sympathetic smiles were exchanged. Yet, the still air in the room remained free of words or voices. The only sound that was heard was their light breathing and the regular creaking and humming of their faithful old ship. Though each was still dealing with the reality of the present, being together like this gave them a sort of peace, and they wished they had done this before Finn had left...though, it wouldn't have been quiet if they had.

The only person they were missing now was Stork, but no one really expected him to come anyway. He wasn't the type to outwardly linger on feelings of loss. They all knew he'd move on in the way he knew how, which was quietly and to himself.

But, two hours had passed since the three had sat down together, and now the silence became nearly oppressive. Things were far too quiet without Finn, they realized, but none of them wanted to be the first to speak. And what else could be said anyway? They looked at each other with a mixture of sadness and discomfort...

When Stork's voice was heard over the intercom.

_Um, guys...there's a call for all of us on the radio, so you might wanna get out here._

His voice was slightly strained, like he was holding something back...hardly noticeable, except by those who knew him best. They were in the bridge in an instant.

"Who is i--"

Their answer came in the form of a wonderfully familiar, though often annoying, voice...

_Hey guys! Good to know that you haven't all died of a broken heart without me yet!_

"Finn!" Junko grinned happily. Aerrow laughed.

"Same here," Piper shot back, smiling, just as glad as everyone else to hear from him.

Stork shook his head. "Don't tell me you called just to check up on us..."

_Come on, man, I know you're lovin' this too._

There was a little static over the airwaves, and then they heard Ada's voice through the speaker.

_I'll have you know that he's done nothing but mope since you guys left,_ she told them, mock exasperation in her voice. _If this keeps up,_ he'll _be the one dying of a broken heart._

"Really now?" Piper wasn't surprised.

_Hey, c'mon babe, give it back!_ They heard Finn beg in the background.

_Mm, don't think I want to..._ Ada replied flirtatiously. _You'll have to really convince me._

"Oh, get a room." Stork muttered.

_...Guys, I'll call you back._

The call disconnected, ending the conversation as quickly as it has started, and the four remaining Storm Hawks looked at each other with amusement. If this kind of keep-in-contact was going to continue, with calls this often, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad...just as long as every call didn't quite end this way.

OoO

And so, the Storm Hawks parted ways. Though, understandably, they hadn't wanted to be separated, their farewells had gone better than they had expected and they were fully capable of living their new lives.

The first few years were hard for everyone...and it was harder for some to move on than others. There were unexpected trials and challenges, but in the end, their experience and willpower managed to help them through each hurdle. At one time or another, each and every one of the friends had found themselves thinking back on their time together with a whisper of regret and no small tinge of longing, but they realized that the nearly magical days of their youth in a squadron, protecting the Atmos, were gone.

As time went by, they gained new friends. Started families. Settled down a bit. But they always kept in contact and visited like they promised, and the memories of days now passed always seemed to stay in the back of their minds. Deep down, they would never let go of the years together that shaped them into the people they had become.

They made friends, they lost some, and one day in their old age, they might even forget them. But life isn't about what you have in the end, even if it's memories. It's about the people you've met, the lives you've changed, and the companions you've loved. It's about what you've done with the time you had, and the imprint you've left behind.

And with that in mind, the heroes who had given so much of themselves to make better the Atmos of their generation...were content.

--

There you have it!

Thanks a billions to my beauteous betas, Ambrel and .PhaerynTao., for all their awesomeness. Go read their work and give it love. Now.

And then thanks to everyone who read this, putting up with how long it took to finish. You're awesome!


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